Resistance is Futile
by JustSmile x3
Summary: Through a series of events, Dumbledore learns of the afterlife. Gotei 13 sends out a unit to remove that knowledge and Kurosaki Ichigo tags along in order to restore his lost powers. Things just sort of escalate from there.
1. Prologue: The Captain's meeting

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Harry Potter nor the concept of multiple Soul Societies. Credit goes where credit's due - in other words, Kubo Tite, J. K. Rowling and someone-whose-name-I-have-yet-to-learn respectively.

AN: Basically, this is just an idea, born from reading Nesarna's Harry Potter and the God of Death and Eradona's Bleach and the Half-Blood Prince. I'm interested in the concept and have many ideas for how it could go, but I'm largely uncertain whether I should continue or not - so I'm just gonna post this and see what the readers think. Constructive criticism is always welcome!

Also, note that not _everything_ that is said in this chapter is true.

Timeline: Bleach - canon compliant up to chapter 423 and takes up basically after Ichigo wakes up. Harry Potter - Prologue happens sometime during the GoF, but the first chapter will be happening during the summer between GoF and OotP. Sort of. Technically, I'm diverging from Bleach canon straight away (with Central 46 not yet formed and all that, you'll see the changes) and the story will follow OotP for a while, but a big divergence is gonna happen there, too.

Some points made in this story are not going to match up with Bleach canon after chapter 423, but nothing major.

EDIT (03-30-2013): To make it a point, since there had been several misconceptions so far, this is not, in any way shape or form an Evil!Dumbledore story. There are enough hints of it, yeah, but it is not a story where Dumbledore's the antagonist, even if the Bleach Characters will probably think that way for a while. Just... well, calling him a catalyst wouldn't be out of place, but not entirely accurate, either.

* * *

Prologue: The Captains' Meeting

Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni stood rigid, focused on a number of men standing before him in two separate rows, much like pillars of society that they were supposed to represent and battle for. However, one row was significantly smaller than the other, much to his chagrin.

The defection of the three captains, months ago, had had a lasting effect on the moral of Soul Society and right now, the only ones with the power to take over the vacant Captain spots were either unwilling or at the moment lacked the power to do. Squads three, five and nine reflected the sourness and the lack of faith the best – with squad five far ahead of the others. After all, they had lost their Lieutenant as well, for Hinamori Momo was still recovering and was hence unable to take over her post as the second seat of har division.

Despite all this, the first squad chambers were now much cheerier than before, especially during the Captains' meeting. In fact, several Captains were discussing animatedly about Kurosaki Ichigo's recent awakening that the Sōtaichō ended up wondering whether they even remembered how much they owed to the human boy – but Yamamoto did. Yamamoto did, and he had every intention of paying back that debt and bringing the boy under their charge.

Kurosaki Ichigo was a wildcard. It was only a matter of time when Urahara would find a way to recreate the boy's immense power, and no one could predict what Kurosaki would do then. A full-blown war against Soul Society – with a very large number of allies from Seireitei itself – could hardly be dismissed. The boy loathed their justice system. And even if not, there was still risk it might happen one day.

Thus, the Sōtaichō had found a solution and therefore snapped his cane to the marble floor, the sound of it echoing throughout the chamber.

Finally, the noise settled down.

"We have gathered today," Yamamoto began, "to discuss the consequences of Soifon-taichō's departure to Avalon."

The said woman stiffened and bowed her head in shame, which was quite the opposite of her habit to keep her head high. Not single one of the Captains failed to notice it, but only one of them besides Yamamoto knew what it was all about – and even that Captain barely knew anything other than what he was required to know.

"Your report, Soifon-taichō," Yamamoto demanded clearly.

The Captain of the second division stepped out, rising her head – and began. "On January Eleventh, about two weeks after Aizen's defeat," she informed them, "Avalon had requested for aid in order to deal with a traitor of their own threatening to invade the Royal Dimension. That man, Prescott Blake, with his allies, had been captured alive and interrogated. Through interrogation, we had learned that his allies were none other than Aizen Sosuke and Penglai's Yin Xiao Long, who had made an alliance in order to overthrow the Spirit King."

"But hadn't Yin Xiao Long died shortly before-?" Ukitake Juushiro, the Captain of thirteenth division, said, but then quickly amended. "Ah. He had faked his death as well."

"Affirmative," said Soifon. "However, Yin Xiao Long had been defeated shortly after his defection, therefore Aizen and Prescott had lost their ally shortly into the war. Aizen had then been imprisioned by us, leaving only Prescott to run wild; which is precisely what he did. Several commanders of Avalon had lost their lives in order to stop him and that is when Avalon had requested assistance which we have, along with Penglai and Tikal, given."

"No one else answered the call?" Hitsugaya Toshiro, the tenth squad Captain, asked incredulously.

"No," said Soifon. "Upon his capture, Prescott had been put under severe torture measures and several truth serums before he had finally been forced into submission. We have learned that the final step in his plan was a bomb set in the center of the city of London, where the sacrifice of the souls would have been more than enough to enter the Royal Realm and we had then set out to stop it."

"Hm… I don't see why they wouldn't just try to _steal_ the King's Key," muttered Kyoraku Shunsui, the eighth squad Captain. "Each of the Soul Societies has one of its own to use in the emergency. They were intelligent enough to try it and perhaps even succeed."

"Maybe that was a slower solution?" Komamura, the Captain of seventh division offered.

"No. It was the easier one. They had to have had ulterior motives for going the roundabout way," muttered Ukitake.

"The prisoner had avoided answering to the questions related to their motives even despite the truth serums," said Soifon. "The mission 'Goliath', as the Avalon had called it, had been successfully completed and the city of London had been protected from the explosion. Prescott's followers – which were very few in numbers – had successfully murdered many officers before their final defeat. We have lost about seventeen Onmitsukidō members."

"That _is_ a large number," noted Kyoraku. "I think we lost fewer officers in the war against Aizen than that."

"We have," Yamamoto confirmed, deep trace of regret etched in his voice. "Soifon-taichō, continue."

She obliged. "The Onmitsukidō and myself had volunteered to make another check up over London, to make sure that everything was under control. Avalon had retreated to recover from the war and we have soon after reported that London was clear. Shortly upon our report's delivery, everything had gone wrong.

"I… have failed," Soifon admitted grudgingly with her head once again bowed. "While there, in the city of London, there have appeared to be several wandering souls. I had… not been aware of a human – a wizard, to be precise – watching while I was contacting Avalon about it. The attack had caught me unaware. I never reached them."

"Such incompetence… by mere human…" along with a snort could be heard from Kurotsuchi Mayuri-taichō of the twelfth Division.

No one bothered giving him a response – not even a reprimand for the insult. The reasons for that were more than clear.

"When I had awoken," Soifon continued, her voice faltering a little while she tried to ignore another one of Kurotsuchi's snorts, "I was blindfolded, in a room where I could determine nothing. I was restrained by something remotely assembling the Sekkiseki stone structure and my Reiatsu was not strong enough for an attempt of escape."

"A man came," she choked out, "introducing himself as Dumbledore Albus. He… demanded to know what I was and what I was talking about when I mentioned the souls. I never gave in to the threats, not to my subordinates', not to my own wellbeing. I was offered some water, as to help keep me alive. I don't think he realized what he was dealing with. I refused, not willing to taste any poison the man may have prepared."

Everyone aside from Zaraki Kenpachi listened with stony faces as the professionals they were. The eleventh division Captain only looked as if he was bored – which pretty much was the case.

"Why did Avalon not interfere?" wondered Hitsugaya.

"For all they knew, our unit dispatched. For all they cared, they dropped dead," interpreted Kyoraku scornfully.

"It was forced down my throat," Soifon continued at Sōtaichō's gesture, "– the potion that man called Veritaserum – the truth serum. I have no recollection of much that happened after. The answers – completely truthful – flowed out of me against my own will. Then he cast a spell on me – yes, I have already said he was a wizard – _Imperio_, I believe I heard him say. It forced me to contact Soul Society and bring his offer to Yamamoto-Sōtaichō. I fought against it until he punched my face, breaking the last of my focus and I succumbed to the spell.

"I… remember everything I had been forced to do," she admitted. "For that, Yamamoto-Sōtaichō, I wish to resign from my post as the Captain of the second division and the head of the Onmitsukidō. I had failed my mission, disclosed the secrets of Soul Society to mortals and breached nearly every written rule regarding intercontinental soul dispatch and information guarding. I no longer deserve to bear those titles."

"Stand up, Soifon-taichō," Yamamoto ordered. "Your punishment will be dealt with accordingly. At this moment, we must focus on the matter at hand." He turned to the rest of the Captains in the room. "As you all know, I have spoken to this man, Dumbledore Albus. He is adamant and requests a task force numbering at least two Shinigami for a mission he has in mind. Any attempts to pass it over to Avalon have as of yet been in vain."

"I don't see why we don't just kill the bastard," said Zaraki Kenpachi, the eleventh division Captain casually. "That would pretty much solve the problem, wouldn't it?"

"While, in the usual cases that option would be taken into account," said Yamamoto, "in this case we cannot rely on assassination or memory removal. Dumbledore had informed us that if something unexpected were to happen to him, the rest of the Magical Britain would learn everything he already knew. While we do not know if this truly is the case, we cannot take that risk. Erasing a memory of a person may be an easy task, but erasing memory of thousands is downright impossible, for we all know how fast the information spread."

"This is a matter Avalon should be dealing with, however. What was their response?" said Ukitake.

"Avalon refuses to interfere," replied Yamamoto. "While I have not informed them of the details of this problem, they refuse to deal with anything regarding British Ministry of Magic – or Magical Britain in general. Their reasoning for this is the crudeness, arrogance and the sheer ego that the current Ministry possesses."

"So there they go, let us deal with something in their own region," muttered Kyoraku. "Irresponsible and hypocritical, seeing as many of our own officers had lost their lives to protect theirs."

"On the other hand, Avalon has given us free reign to deal with this accordingly, which is precisely what we are going to do."

"So what? We just dance to the tune that a single mere mortal plays?" Kurotsuchi snapped irritably. He seemed to be more bothered with that, rather than the fact that Avalon had refused to interfere.

"It bears too much risk not to. If the existence of the afterlife got out to humans, other than special exceptions of Kurosaki and his family and allies, the Royal Guard would have to act and the punishment would be dealt with accordingly," replied Yamamoto, a dark sense of foreboding hidden underneath his words. "Soifon-taichō, would you be capable of recognizing this man? Have you ever seen Albus Dumbledore's face?"

The Second Division Captain still stood near Sōtaichō's feet. "No, I have not," she answered shortly.

"As you can see, Kurotsuchi-taichō, we have no means of recognizing this Dumbledore. According to the negotiations, I have several… officers… in mind that will follow through Dumbledore's request. Their primary task shall be to determine whether the threat of information breach is truly existent or whether it was only an old man's bluff. In whichever the case, this task force will act accordingly."

"When you say accordingly, what exactly do you have in mind, Yama-jii?" asked Kyoraku.

"Memory removal – or, for the latter, securing that the information is not revealed no matter the cost," replied Yamamoto stiffly.

"I don't understand," muttered Komamura. "So this task force shall respect Dumbledore's request, then with the first given opportunity, remove his memories?"

"That's not very nice," muttered Kyoraku.

None aside from Kurotsuchi Mayuri and Zaraki Kenpachi seemed overjoyed with the idea, though the mentioned two clearly wanted the human to be murdered (or at least dissected).

"One of the conditions given to us is that the task force must have at least two capable Shinigami officers that could pass of as humans, age eleven to eighteen, hence this mission shall be led by Hinamori-fukutaichō."

Hitsugaya Toshiro and Unohana Retsu stirred up, but Yamamoto continued without giving them an opportunity to object.

"Dumbledore Albus' request is for Soul Society to infiltrate into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – which he is the headmaster of – to provide protection for one Potter Harry. He put an accent on those agents capable of using magic and that are easy to fit in with a large number of schoolchildren, for this Potter is a student there himself. As for Hinamori-fukutaichō's recovery, the mission shall take place on September, so she will have more than enough time to recover."

"So in other words, that man is using Gotei Thirteen as his army on disposal," Hitsugaya muttered with distaste.

"Can Shinigami even use their magic?" wondered Kyoraku. "I _know_ some of us here _must_ have been wizards – or witches," he amended, with a short glance towards Soifon and Unohana, "but we have no recollection of it. Does this magic perhaps relate to Reiatsu?"

"It doesn't," was Kurotsuchi's brief, but snappy response. "Well, that is actually inaccurate, as the use of magic actually has some rather brief, but significant influence on one's Reiatsu."

"Such as?" Kuchiki Byakuya of division six and the Noble Kuchiki clan asked.

"It increases it," said Kurotsuchi. "Not by much, mind you, and I doubt it has any effect at all on those with rather powerful Reiatsu. However, that is something I cannot yet claim. I tried to draw parallels between magic and Kido, and while there have only been few, it is enough to confirm that only those with a knack for using Kido will be the only ones with any possibility to use magic."

"Which is precisely why, as a Kido master, Hinamori-fukutaichō is being given this mission," said Yamamoto, and then focused on Kurotsuchi. "And you said that using magic increases ones Reiatsu – if the one does not have very remarkable Reiatsu to begin with."

"Yes. I have personally run those tests," confirmed Kurotsuchi.

"Do you believe that this magic is able to restore Reiryoku of one who had completely lost it?"

Brief pause, where half the Captains held their breaths.

"Why, yes, it would take some time, but it should."

Kyoraku smirked, seemingly understanding where this was going. "Why, Yama-jii, I didn't know you cared."

"Silence," said Yamamoto. "Hitsugaya-taichō."

"Yes, Yamamoto-Sōtaichō?"

"You will lead the back up force in case something goes awry on this mission with Kira Izuru-fukutaichō, seventh seat of squad four, Yamada Hanatarō and the thirteenth division's Kuchiki Rukia. All of them," he said at some very prominent and stabbing looks he had gotten, "are proficient in Kido and have some relation to Kurosaki Ichigo."

Another brief silence and Sōtaichō could see the captains connecting dots in their heads. He was expecting for a quick protest, when,

"I don't see how this is got anything to do with Ichigo," said Zaraki. "I thought he lost all of his powers when he beat that Aizen bastard to a pulp."

"And we are going to use this mission to help him get them back," said Kyoraku quickly. "Why, you are becoming rather sentimental, Yama-jii. I wonder what Central Forty-Six is going to say once they have completely reformed."

It was meant mostly as a joke, but no one failed to see the seriousness of the matter. Central Forty-Six – or at least whatever part of it that was reinstated at the moment – had explicitly wanted Kurosaki to be tried under the same conditions as Vizards. No Captain in Gotei Thirteen had even thought of supporting that decision, except for maybe Kurotsuchi Mayuri or Kuchiki Byakuya, but then the Sōtaichō completely vetoed it, as Kurosaki no longer had any of his powers and therefore bore no threat to Soul Society as a whole.

"As the Martial Law is still under place, Central Forty-Six cannot question any of my decisions brought while it lasts. They may veto it after they are reformed – but only after the mission is completed," Yamamoto informed him.

"Ah, very clever move," commented Ukitake.

"It is," agreed Unohana. "However, I must object to Hinamori-fukutaichō leading this mission. She had only barely awoken from coma and her mental condition is still delicate—"

"Which is why you had requested leave for Hinamori-fukutaichō to the World of the Living," the Sōtaichō finished for her "-or to be precise, Karakura town. I know, Unohana-taichō. You specified that Hinamori-fukutaichō is in need of surroundings that bear no relations to anything that might cause her trauma. Hogwarts proves to be an ideal location. It is foolproof on the battle side, for it is a memory removal mission and since it is humans, even an unseated officer could complete the mission, were it not for other risks."

"I… see." Unohana lowered her head. "Then, I full-heartedly agree with your decision, Sōtaichō."

"But that also brings another problem up," said Kyoraku. "If Hinamori-chan is sent out to the living world, it leaves fifth division without any commanding officer for quite a while. Unless you have already found replacements for the vacant Captain positions, that is."

"The Vizards are to receive a solemn pardon before the Central Forty-Six reforms, offering to some of them to take over their former positions, such as Hirako Shinji," replied Yamamoto calmly.

"And if they refuse?" wondered Ukitake. "They didn't seem overly fond of us. For a very good reason, I daresay."

"Then the Captain's proficiency test shall be put into motion and anyone willing can apply," said Yamamoto. "Another point that I must make," he added. "Is that if any of Kurosaki Ichigo's allies is willing to come as well, they may, but only after the situation is well considered."

"Eh? Why?" Hitsugaya looked rather taken aback.

"Because Soul Society must pay back what they owe," muttered Ukitake under his breath, but it was completely hearable.

"I see…" Hitsugaya mumbled to himself.

The rest of the meeting focused on not very interesting matters regarding paperwork and rebuilding the system and the Sōtaichō noticed that the attention of his fellow captains was very soon completely diminished.


	2. Chapter 1: Across the world

AN: I'm not exactly a fan of too long AN's, so I'll make this brief. Thanks for support. I'm continuing on with the story. I want to thank everyone who have reviewed, put the story on alerts and favorites and even just plainly read it. Thank you all very much!

The next chapter probably won't be out before Sunday, but I'll see what I can do!

* * *

Chapter 1: Across the world

Albus Dumbledore had spent most of the late June evening dealing with the whole chaos regarding the final end of the Triwizard tournament. It had been an international disaster, politically speaking, but regarding everything else, it was a problem far deeper than just that.

The Ministry still refused to believe that Voldemort was alive. And with them, so did the most of the Wizarding Britain. Up until now, convincing people the opposite wasn't going very well.

There was a soft knock to the door and without looking up from the paper he was reading at the moment, Albus said, "Come on in, Minerva."

Minerva McGonagall walked inside, her brows furrowed at a rather important-looking paper in her hands.

"This has arrived about five minutes ago, Albus," she said. "I think you may want to take a look at it."

Sighing, Albus dropped the notice from the Minister and reached for whatever letter Minerva was about to give him. He couldn't keep his eyebrows from rising as he read on. Finally, when finished, he put it down and sighed.

"Well, we best prepare Hogwarts for a couple of students aboard this year," he said with a small twinkle in his eyes.

"Albus, you can't be serious! Such a request coming from a school of suspicious origin—!"

"Don't worry, Minerva," he said calmly.

"It is outrageous! You are practically asking for trouble!" she protested.

"I'd like to believe I'm making the right choice," Albus said. "I have never heard of something like this being done before, but remember. After the Triwizard tournament, the international relations right now are downright… _feeble_. If a country, even so isolated like Japan, is making an offer of friendship, I can hardly consider it outrageous."

Minerva's expression quickly turned from dubious to resigned one.

"You aren't going to have it any other way, are you?" she asked.

"You are quite right, Minerva," he replied. "And while you are on your way out, could you please have Winky bring me some Lemon Drops? I seem to be scarce of those."

The Transfiguration professor merely nodded at the request before leaving the office.

She had a bad feeling that with the transfers brought along, things were only going to get worse, rather than better.

* * *

"So, it arrived?" Shihoin Yoruichi asked with a yawn.

"Ah, it appears so," replied Urahara Kisuke. "I'm giving Kurosaki-san about twenty minutes to get here. And probably break the door down in the process."

"Well, as long as he doesn't break through the wall, we're okay," Yoruichi said, stretching her arms as if she woke up from a particularly pleasant nap. "I swear, that kid has a knack for flashy entrances."

"Flashy? Hm… I'd rather call it explosive," Urahara murmured.

"That goes too."

They were at Urahara's store, enjoying the warm July breeze. The whole day had been so stuffy and hot. How Urahara had managed to keep the temperature down at normal level was beyond Yoruichi, but hell if she'd complain.

"Still can't believe this actually happened," she said as she let her hands fall limply at her side.

"Hm… Is this about Kurosaki-san or Soifon-taichō?" Urahara asked. He was sitting cross-legged at the small round table, enjoying the breeze as much as Yoruichi was.

"Whichever. Soifon is not the type to get caught so easily. Ichigo is not a type to get depressed. Both situations are as unlikely as they can get."

"And yet again, it happened. Is Soifon-taichō still upset? After all, it's been months."

Yoruichi snorted. "If you take running a squad as rigorously as possible as being upset, then upset doesn't even begin to cover it."

"Well, she was beat down by a human…"

"So was Aizen."

"Come on, Yoruichi-san! Kurosaki-san was a special case! He could hardly be considered a normal human!"

"Whoever said wizards were _normal_?" Yoruichi countered.

Urahara grinned. "Touché. I'll have to ask Kurosaki-san to demonstrate some magic as soon as possible. I'm really curious about how it works."

"Assuming he even agrees to the whole scheme."

"Oh, don't worry. He will. If what Inoue-san told me is true, then he'll be hanging on to the slightest possibility of getting his powers back. Can't honestly say I'm surprised."

"Well, it is a bit weird to hang around him now that he can't see me in my spiritual form," Yoruichi admitted. "How can you even be certain that this magic will work on him? Not everyone can use it. Especially not someone who's never had a good control over their Reiatsu."

"Oh, that's precisely what makes me sure it'll work for Kurosaki-san. His worst problem had always been the massive power he possessed yet had no idea how to control. Now, he's starting from zero. I highly doubt magic can do much for him, other than enable him to become spiritually aware again. Which, I remind you, is the only thing we can't do. After that, I'll give it six months give or take and he'll be back at full power."

"Which full power are we talking about here?"

Urahara smirked. "Captain-class, of course."

Yoruichi snorted. "He'd been at that level even before obtaining Bankai."

"It's really not up to me in which subclass he'll be." Urahara pouted.

"And post-Dangai-training level?"

Urahara was stopped from responding when the main entrance to the shop forcefully opened.

"I'll take it it's not Tessai?" Yoruichi said.

She got her response when a very frustrated teenager stormed inside.

"My, you're five minutes early, Kurosaki-san!" Urahara chirped.

"Shut it," Kurosaki Ichigo said, slamming the thick yellow envelope hard against the small round table. "I'll just assume you're somehow involved with this, so I might as well go ahead and ask what the hell's all this about!"

Urahara eyed the thick envelope with an emblem of a lion, snake, beaver and eagle surrounding a large H. He looked back at Ichigo with a smirk.

"Why, you're being awfully rude today, Kurosaki-san. Is that a way to greet someone you haven't seen for six months?"

"How is a goddamn blood message a way to greet someone _you _haven't seen for six months?" Ichigo snapped back.

Yoruichi laughed. "You really need to get more creative, Kisuke."

Ichigo looked at her, if a bit confused. "…Hey, Yoruichi."

"How's it going?" She flashed him a grin.

"It's okay," he said shortly, then rounded back on Urahara. "Damn it, it would have been _fine_ if Yuzu hadn't been there when it arrived."

"I take it she was upset?" muttered Urahara.

"More like thinking I was suicidal or something…" Ichigo grumbled.

"I see you've still got no sense of humor," Urahara muttered disappointedly. As Ichigo began growling, he quickly changed the subject. "Well, since you're here now, we can begin. Kurosaki-san, have you even read through the letter you got?"

Ichigo decided that this was not the time to beat the hell out of the shopkeeper and nodded, settling down at the table. "Yeah. Can't stop wondering what sort of a sick joke that is."

"Hm… and what would your reaction be if I said that it's true and a magic school in Scotland does exist?" asked Urahara.

"Pfft. I've seen weirder things than that," Ichigo said.

"My, you seem really blasé with this, Kurosaki-san."

"I've seen Rukia and Renji _and _god knows how many others do that weird Kido trick of theirs and I felt it on my own skin more than once. Why would _magic _ever bother me? What I want to know is why the hell does it say that _I'm_ transferred to a _magic school_? In _Scotland_."

"Well, did it ever cross your mind that it says so because it _is_ so?" Yoruichi said.

"Of course it—do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for this CRAP?!"

Urahara shook his head lightly. "I was afraid of this."

Yoruichi struggled to keep her laughter inside.

"Kurosaki-san, before you go all out on me with whatever you've got to say, just answer me one question," said Urahara.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Fine," he bit off.

"Do you, or do you not want your Shinigami powers back?"

Ichigo's mouth hung half open.

Right away, Yoruichi could say that this was not what he was expecting when he got to the shop.

"Judging by you reaction, I'll take it the answer is affirmative," Urahara stated.

Ichigo's body was seemingly working against him, as he found himself nodding without uttering a single word.

"I see. Then, let me explain some things for you," said Urahara. Playfulness that was usually the essential part of his voice was now gone and the seriousness of the situation finally seemed to be getting to Ichigo.

"Recently, the Soul Society had made a…well, an agreement of sorts… with the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Essentially, that agreement is about… well, how should I put this? Ah, yes. The agreement is about Soul Society providing a bodyguard or two for one of the students of this school."

Ichigo seemed as if he wanted to say something, but Urahara didn't give him a chance.

"I think even you can tell that Soul Society did not like the sound of it. While protecting humans is in fact the Shinigami's duty, they do not have any right to meddle with the lives of mortals – you being a very peculiar exception."

Ichigo snorted, but it was obvious that he was listening keenly.

"Now, as you must be aware, the Soul Society had agreed to this—"

"They had?" Ichigo repeated incredulously.

"Unfortunately," Urahara affirmed. "Or fortunately. Depending on how you take it."

"Can't believe they're actually complying with something like that," Ichigo muttered.

"The reason is that Dumbledore Albus is holding leverage over them, but this is not important to you," Urahara said. "What is important is that Soul Society does _not_ mind letting you come along with their agent. You may be wondering why it is so and why would you ever need to go, but let me tell you this; this magic I am talking about is not Kido. In fact, it is more the magic children are raised to believe in; magic wands, floating objects, weird hats – stuff like that."

"Like you're the one to talk about weird hats," Ichigo mumbled in his chin.

"Kurosaki-san! You can't just insult my hat!"

Yoruichi burst out laughing. "He's got you there, Kisuke."

Urahara pouted.

Ichigo seemed to be growing annoyed at the interruption. "Just tell me more about this magic and why you're sending me to _Scotland _of all places."

Urahara sighed. "It is fairly simple, really. This magic, while probably sounding very ridiculous from your point of view—" Ichigo snorted. "—is related to one's Reiatsu."

"R_eally_ now?"

"Oh, yes. In fact, the more one uses magic, the faster their Reiatsu increases. In many cases, the witches and wizards have grown to have the Reiatsu equivalent to our third seat, perhaps even Vice-captain Level."

"So… you're saying that if I start using this magic, my power will… grow?"

"Basically, yes, it will. The growth rate is something I am unable to inform you on, but I assure you it will grow enough for you to get your Shinigami powers back. They may not be as strong as they were when you first got them, but I'm pretty sure you'll be able to catch on with it without much trouble!"

Ichigo crossed his arms. "Why?"

"Eh? Excuse me?"

"Why would Soul Society ever bother with me? What with them wanting to seal away Inoue and Chad's powers, why would they ever try to restore mine?"

"Well, I do believe you were somewhat of a… hm… _wildcard_, I guess is the right term. My guess is that Sōtaichō wants to put you under control. Or at least oversee what you're up to."

The change in Ichigo's face became evident; it got darker. "Ah, I see what you mean. Useless…"

Urahara smirked, flipping his fan open rather quickly to cover it. "I see you've still got the right attitude."

"So are you going to explain about this whole thing or what?"

"What am I exactly supposed to explain? I've already told you all _I_ know."

"Maybe telling me who this _agent_ of theirs is."

Urahara shrugged. "No idea. I'm not on _that_ great terms with Seireitei, you know."

"But you two are no longer exiles, right?"

"Technically, we are," Yoruichi supplied. "We were pardoned, yeah, but we're still here, aren't we?"

"So what's it gonna be, Kurosaki-san? The choice is solely up to you, after all," Urahara said.

Brown met the grey in a flash of determination. "Do you even have to ask?"

"Why, I do consider it an act of courtesy. We don't want an 'I pushed you into it' scenario, do we now?"

"R_ight_," muttered Ichigo. Then he caught the sight of the letter again. "Hey, and what did they mean by, 'we await your owl'? And what's up with so many listed books? There're more of those than I'd have in the final year!"

Urahara flipped his fan closed. "Hm… I guess I didn't explain _everything_…" he pouted.

* * *

August twenty-third turned out to be another sunny, rather hot summer day. The most of the day Ichigo spent packing up for the upcoming trip to the UK that afternoon – and doing everything in his power to stop Yuzu from crying.

In retrospect, he should have known that taking up Soul Society's offer would result in something like this. In a way, it was the equivalent of him joining Shinigami Academy or something – if not even worse. After all, he hardly knew anything about the place he was going to.

Not that it would stop him.

At about three thirty PM, he said his goodbyes, smacked his dad on the head hard enough to knock him out for five seconds and with the luggage, headed over to Urahara's.

"_I want you to be at the shop on August twenty-third at least five minutes before the clock strikes four! Is that clear, Kurosaki-san?" _Urahara had said.

Whatever Urahara had in mind, Ichigo had a bad feeling he wasn't going to like it very much.

He had told his friends about the departure, of course, but he only told them the previous day. Ishida had been himself, as always, and didn't appear to care. Keigo and Mizuiro – who knew only part of the story – had been tearful and cheerful respectively. Tatsuki had been a bit quiet, but she sort of wished him a safe trip so Ichigo decided it was all right. Chad had seemed a bit disappointed and Inoue… Inoue had appeared even more cheerful than usual.

When Ichigo stepped at Urahara Shoten's threshold, he was greeted by an unusual sight.

Ishida, Inoue, Tatsuki, Chad, Renji, Rukia and a very familiar-looking Shinigami sat around the circular table, talking animatedly about something. It took Ichigo several seconds to realize they were all in a Gigai and thus that was the reason he was able to see them.

Somehow, it felt like a kick in the shin.

When the group noticed him, they all quieted down.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue was the first to jump up.

"Ah… Yo…" Ichigo replied absently. His eyes were stuck on Rukia and Renji, who both seemed to be avoiding looking at him. Was that guilt he was seeing?

Ichigo shook his head. It didn't matter anymore. It'd been months since he'd last seen them and they hadn't visited even once, but it didn't matter. They were there now and that felt like it mattered much, much more.

"What are you all doing here?" he asked.

"We came to send you off, of course," said Tatsuki.

"And Hinamori-chan!" Inoue chirped.

Ichigo got an unsettling feeling that they all knew what was going on even before he told them. But then he picked up on the unfamiliar name. "Hinamori?"

"Ah! You don't know…? This is Hinamori Momo-chan!" Inoue introduced the third Shinigami present in the room.

The girl nodded slowly. "Hello."

"Ah… Yo…" Ichigo nodded, then looked around. The girl seemed familiar, but for the life of him, Ichigo couldn't remember where he'd seen her before. "Where's Urahara, anyways?"

"He said he left to get you your transportation," supplied Rukia.

Her eyes met with Ichigo's and she held his gaze for a few seconds before he looked away.

"So, you're the agent Yama-jii is sending?" he asked to Hinamori.

"H-hai. I look forward to working with you, Kurosaki-san."

"Ah, there you are, Kurosaki-san!" Urahara shouted as he broke into the room. "Catch!"

A dark-green rectangular object stormed through the air and Ichigo reflexively caught it. "Wha…?"

"It is something the British would call a Portkey, at the moment," Urahara indentified, "but a regular notebook for the rest of the time."

Ichigo opened it and began listing through it.

"Actually, it'd do well for you to read the instructions! It will activate in precisely… five seconds! Quick, Hinamori-san, you must hold it before it goes—"

But Ichigo didn't hear the rest.

The five second time limit, or whatever it was, passed and Ichigo felt his hand stick to the notebook and something at his navel dragging him forwards and spinning. Luckily he never put his stuff down and Hinamori was quick to follow instructions when necessary, otherwise the trip would have been quite uncomfortable.

After minutes – or was it hours – the spinning stopped and Ichigo's feet hit at something solid and hard. Unable to keep the balance, his knees buckled and he ended up falling flat on his back. The notebook fell over his face, obscuring the surroundings.

He heard the gasp as Hinamori fell on the other side.

Forcing himself up on his elbows, Ichigo removed the notebook from his face. "Damn it, Hat-and-Clogs! A little bit of forewarning next time?"

"Wouldn't hurt…" Hinamori muttered. She forced herself to sit up, looking around the room curiously.

They were in a not overly furnished room with soft orange walls. In the far corner there was a round dinner table with four chairs and an old, small wooden kitchen with a bit rusty sink. On the other side, where they were, a sofa and an armchair were positioned around a coffee table that looked as old as Yama-jii probably was and the rug covered the entire room and was mix of soft brown and dark blue color, which somehow magnificently fit together in various patterns. There were no curtains over the window and the early rising sun in the far distance brightened the dark room a little.

"Oh… you're early," a voice said in English, startling Ichigo enough for the teen to jump into a sitting position and look around in wonder.

The man who spoke looked… well, shabby, was definitely the best way to put it. His hair seemed washed out and the coat he was wearing had definitely seen better days, but Ichigo was never the one to judge people by the clothes they were wearing.

Before he could get a better impression, he felt the contents of his stomach rising up and unable to do anything about it, he vomited all over the carpet.

"Go— I'm sorry," Ichigo choked out quickly.

"Not to worry, not to worry," the man said, pointing a wooden stick and muttering something sounding a lot like 'Scourgfy'. Seconds later, the carpet looked as clean as it was supposed to be.

Ichigo closed his eyes and then opened them again, wondering what the hell just happened. Urahara never did explain how magic worked exactly. Just waving a wand and telling magic words could _hardly_ be all of it.

"I'll assume that this was your first time using a Portkey," the shabby man said.

"H-hai," said Hinamori silently. Her face was as white as a sheet and she looked positively sick.

_Well, at least she didn't vomit all over the carpet, _Ichigo noted gloomily.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, sorry. I meant yes. We've never used a portkey before." Hinamori's accent was top notch for someone who spent over hundred years speaking Japanese only.

"There's no need to stay down on the floor, you two. You'll be staying here for about a week, feel at home," said the stranger and Ichigo got a vague feeling that Urahara never explained them _where_ exactly they were going. He'd described Hogwarts as some huge castle or something. This was a room roughly size of Ichigo's own bedroom and certainly did not look like a part of a castle. Besides, there was traffic outside. Wasn't Hogwarts supposed to be secluded?

Ichigo and Hinamori gingerly climbed to their feet and walked towards the sofa. If it weren't for the fact they were still feeling a bit nauseous, they perhaps would have remembered to introduce themselves before taking the seats, but as they didn't, the duty passed on to their host.

"Well, now that you've settled down a bit, my name is Remus Lupin," said the man – Lupin – and sat at the armchair on Ichigo's left side.

Hinamori sprung to her feet, bowing. "My name is Hinamori Momo. Oh, wait. It's the other way—I'm Momo Hinamori! Pleased to meet you, Lupin-san!"

The man looked slightly dumbfounded. "No honorifics, please. I no longer teach at Hogwarts so it is completely all right if you just call me Remus."

Hinamori looked as if she was trying to estimate him, before she nodded and sat down.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," Ichigo said with a small, respective nod.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Lupin said. "Can I offer you anything? Something to eat? Drink? Judging by your expressions, it seems like it's a bit early for that."

He wasn't far from wrong. Both Ichigo and Hinamori's faces turned green at the mentions of anything remotely related to food.

"Err—No, thanks," Ichigo said quickly. "Uh, so where exactly are we now?"

"We are now in my flat in London," Lupin informed them. "I'll take it you didn't know where the portkey was supposed to go?"

"Err, Scotland?" Ichigo offered with a shrug. At the look on Lupin's face, he quickly amended, "I mean, I just assumed it was going to take us directly to school. Urahara never said anything about where we were going to stay…"

"Urahara?"

"Our mentor," Hinamori said before Ichigo even opened his mouth. "He is one of the professors responsible for us and… well…"

"He hardly takes anything seriously," Ichigo finished with a snort, deciding to play along.

"I see. I know several people like that myself." Lupin chuckled. "Well, there are two rooms down the hall. You can choose which one you like the best." He gestured towards the hall on the opposite side from the small window.

"Right… By the way, it's about eight AM now, no? Eight hour difference from Japan?"

"Yes, Eight hours," Lupin confirmed.

"Well, we may as well just settle in now," Ichigo said as he stood up. At least this time he was steady on his feet. He grabbed his luggage, which had fallen next to him earlier, grabbing Hinamori's along as well. It surprised him that, while he had an average sized suitcase and a big rucksack, she had only taken a suitcase that was actually smaller than his.

Talk about girls taking twenty outfits for a week-long trip.

"Kurosaki! You don't have to-!"

"Shut it," Ichigo said. "Where do you want me to leave this?" he asked.

Hinamori bowed her head when she said, "Just put it wherever, Kurosaki-san. You didn't have to…"

"Shut up. If I'm already being nice, you could just go ahead and not whine about it."

"Err… Hai…"

He saw Lupin looking oddly at them, but decided not to pay much attention. He put her suitcase down next to the small wardrobe and moved to the second room where he thrust his backpack against the bed and left the suitcase down at the door.

"What did Urahara say before that thing activated?" he asked to Hinamori.

"Something about some instructions," she said with a shrug. "How we should read them."

"Yeah. So where—probably that notebook thingy. Did you see where it fell?"

"I'm pretty sure it was near the table," Lupin supplied.

"Thanks."

The small, dark green notebook was resting open on the floor and Ichigo picked it up, flipping through the pages. "Let's see… I know I've seen text somewhere… Ah, there!"

The first page was covered in hand-written instructions. The first half was obviously in Japanese while the second, smaller one, was in English. Ichigo's eyes narrowed at the notebook.

"The hell? 'To contact Hitsugaya, use page thirty-one. To translate something, use page twenty-four.' Is he insane? None of these pages are numbered!" Ichigo snapped.

"There has to be a trick there," Hinamori suggested. "Or perhaps he is expecting us to number it…?"

"He better _not_. At least the part in English makes sense. It's all instructions about how to get to some Diagon Alley and Leaky Cauldron. Then there's something about a platform… never mind that. What I want to know is what's up with this book…"

"Diagon Alley isn't very far from here. That's where you'll go to get your supplies," said Lupin. "Had your Gringotts vault been established?"

The two Japanese transfers looked up at him with similar expressions of cluelessness.

"G-vault-_what_?" asked Ichigo.

"Your Gringotts vault. Gringotts; the Wizarding bank. Do you not have a branch in Japan? I was pretty sure there was one," said Lupin.

Ichigo shrugged. "No idea… Now that I think about it; who is financing this whole trip? Yama-jii?"

Hinamori looked thoughtful. "They didn't say. Is there anything in the notebook about it?"

"Let me check," said Ichigo and read over again. "Here it is." He marked the line written in English. "The vault at Gringotts holds about three hundred Galleons, seven hundred Sickles and about three hundred Knuts and the key is with the deputy Headmistress."

"Guess we'll have to wait before we can go shopping," Hinamori sighed.

"Right. Remind me to beat Hat-and-Clogs down to a pulp the next time I see him," Ichigo growled.

Hinamori smiled faintly.

"I'll see to it that you get the key before tomorrow afternoon so that you can go and buy everything you need before it gets really crowded," offered Lupin.

"Thank you, Lu—Remus-san," said Hinamori.

"Well, seeing as we have nothing better to do at the moment and it's actually really early around here, how about I tell you some stories of Hogwarts and then you can contact your family and tell them that you have arrived safely?"

Hinamori smiled briefly, though there was something in it that suggested that she was not as happy about it as she made it seem. "Of course, Remus-san. We'd love to hear it!"

Ichigo shrugged. Barely even paying attention to Lupin's story, he wondered what sort of an asylum he had landed into.


	3. Chapter 2: Let me tell you a story

A/N: An update earlier than planned. I feel good. Anyways, there's not much on plot going on here, as there are still things I need to take care of before the plot really starts to unfold and chaos strikes, but this should suffice. For now. Hopefully.

I'm not sure whether I should put Disclaimer in every chapter, so I won't, but occasionally... here goes: I don't own Bleach or Harry Potter. Credit goes to Kubo Tite and J. K. Rowling. Now on to the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 2: Let me tell you a story

"Well, here you go," said Lupin, dropping a small bronze key into Ichigo's hand. There was a genuine smile on his face when he did it.

Ichigo looked at the key, then at Lupin. "Err… I'll assume it's the vault key."

"Precisely," Lupin confirmed. "I contacted professor McGonagall yesterday. She came by earlier this morning to drop it off here. I have to warn you to be careful with finances, however. Schooling, no matter what you think, is not free."

Ichigo nodded, focusing back on his breakfast. "Yeah, yeah… If it's Yama-jii who is sponsoring this, I'll be more than glad to spend it all."

"Kurosaki-san, you can't—" Hinamori started, stopped, shook her head and settled back on finishing her breakfast. All the while, there was a small frown in her face.

Lupin watched the silence between them, before sighing. "Well, I could always come along with you."

The two teens looked up at him immediately.

"Didn't you say you had work to do?" Ichigo asked. Honestly, Lupin with them was the last thing they needed. What with everything they needed to buy…

"Well, I did, but I could always put it off for a little later—"

"It's really not necessary," said Hinamori, flustered. "We're your guests, Remus-san, yes, but we're not little kids. We can handle that much on our own."

"Well, at least then let me lead you through before I go. I can't let you get lost at any point, especially in the Muggle part of the city," Lupin insisted.

The two transfers sighed simultaneously. Deciding that there would be no use in trying to talk Lupin out of it, they nodded.

* * *

"All right, I'll leave you here while I go check-in to my office," Lupin said after showing them how to enter the Diagon Alley and leading them through it to show them where they could buy their supplies. They had taken out over hundred galleons to have for shopping from Gringotts and now were fully equipped.

"Seriously, you don't have to act like we're five year olds. We can take care of ourselves," said Ichigo, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, I can't just leave guests to their own devices, now can I? You are all on your own in a foreign country, foreign world…" Lupin paused, as if trying to come up with another reason.

"Yeah, but…"

"What Kurosaki-san meant to say is that we can't keep you here as our tour guide forever, Remus-san," Hinamori said easily. "We know you must have other duties besides taking care of two foreign teenagers so we can't possibly expect you to show us which way to go all the time. Besides, it's as Kurosaki-san said, we can take care of ourselves. We're really resourceful!"

"Err… resourceful?" Ichigo contemplated. Seeing the quizzical look Lupin was giving him, he quickly added, "Yeah… we are. You just go ahead and do what you've gotta do. It's not like we're not already overstaying our welcome."

"Wait, you two got it all wrong—!"

"Don't worry, Remus-san. We know you have a life other than helping a few transfer students," Hinamori said with a smile. "All we're trying to say is that we're not going to learn anything if you keep chewing everything for us."

Lupin stared at her, his mouth half-open in an attempt to object, but then he shook his head. "I see there is no way for me to win this one. All right, then. I already told you how to contact me if you need anything and do not hesitate to do so."

"Of course not," Hinamori said mechanically.

"All right. Enjoy your… exploration." Remus smiled at them warmly. Hinamori returned one of her own smiles while Ichigo only grunted.

"See you at the ice-cream parlor at noon, Remus-san!" Hinamori said as the former Hogwarts professor turned to leave.

"Don't be late, you two" he told them.

Hinamori only smiled.

Soon, Lupin disappeared in a mass of oddly dressed wizards and witches, leaving Hinamori and Ichigo to their own devices in the middle of the alley.

"So… Now what?" Ichigo questioned.

"I guess it wouldn't be too bad if we went to apothecary first," Hinamori mused, taking out the list of books and other equipment they were supposed to buy. "Or perhaps the wand store. Good thing we managed to get Remus-san out of here before we went to buy wands… It would be really suspicious if we had to explain him why we had no wands prior to our arrival. All wizards and witches are supposed to have one."

"Yeah…" Ichigo agreed. "With our luck, he'll probably get back in twenty minutes."

"But it's only nine in the morning now, Kurosaki-san. Why would he…?"

"To check up on us? Who knows? Maybe that Dumbledore dude whose memories you're supposed to erase was the one who's having him spy on us…" Ichigo mused disinterestedly.

"AH! You may be right! But I don't think that's it. Remus-san seems nice enough," said Hinamori. "Come on. The wand store is this way."

Ichigo didn't have much to say against that. Not that he even wanted to get involved.

The Ollivander's wand shop was the oddest place Ichigo had entered (excluding Urahara's shop, Seireitei and Las Noches by a stretch) and he found himself wondering if all those boxes in the floor-to-ceiling-shelves contained wands or were they there just for the show.

"Ah, visitors so early on this fine morning. What may I do for you?" a voice said and ladders slid towards them. The man, eccentric as he seemed, could rival Urahara – excuse the lack of a random striped hat and a fan.

"Uh… Hello. We're here to buy wands," Hinamori informed him.

"Only you, Miss, or…?"

"Both."

The shopkeeper stared at them for several seconds.

"I see," the man said.

From the pocket of his white robe, he took a tape-measure and tapped it with a wand. The tape measure instantly bolted through the air, straight to Hinamori. A strangled gasp escaped the girl's lips as the tape started measuring the space between her eyes, nostrils and then proceeded to measure her arms.

Several minutes later, he inspected the tape and skipped in the long line of shelves before returning a minute later with several boxes stashed in his arms, muttering 'Curious, very curious indeed'. Putting them down on the counter, he reached for the first box in the heap, taking an elegant, dark-brown wand from it and carefully handing it to Hinamori.

"Try this one, Miss…?"

"Oh, I apologize. I'm Momo Hinamori."

"Ah, Miss Hinamori. Unicorn tail hair and willow; twelve inches. Give it a wave."

And Hinamori did.

Much to her disappointment, nothing happened. Ollivander – Ichigo could only assume it was his name – shook his head. "I was afraid of this," he said, before giving her another one, this one made of a lighter-colored wood. "You need a bit more temperamental one. Here, try this one. Unicorn hair and yew; ten inches."

Hinamori waved it. A red spark flew out of it, through the room, before rushing back towards her and diminishing right before the startled girl's eyes.

"No, no, no," the eccentric shopkeeper was muttering. "Unicorn hair doesn't seem to work for you at all… Ah, try this one. Phoenix feather and chestnut, thirteen inches. Fit for transfi—"

He never finished. Hinamori waved it and a shelf filled with boxes exploded.

"Ah… Phoenix feather fits, but not… Here! Try this one, Miss Hinamori," he said, handing another wand to the startled girl. "Phoenix feather and alder. I think this one shall fit. Twelve and a half inches, reasonably supple."

This time, Hinamori proceeded warily. Carefully looking at the wand, she gave it a soft wave, before the warm wind engulfed the room. Ollivander was positively beaming and said something along the lines of 'finally sold', before he tapped the tape-measure with his wand and the tape turned to Ichigo, startling him as it started measuring the distance between his mouth and nose. The old man skipped to the shelves with the tape and the stack of wands that he had formerly brought.

How the hell he'd learn anything about them with this method was beyond Ichigo.

Then the old wand-maker was back, with two dusty thin boxes. He softly put them on the counter, opening one of the boxes carefully and giving the smooth wand to Ichigo.

"Here, Mr. …?"

"Kurosaki."

"Ah, Mr. Kurosaki. Unicorn tail hair and elm, eleven and a half inches, not very supple. Let's see if this fits you."

Taught by Hinamori's previous experience, Ichigo waved the wand slowly, carefully, at the same time feeling pretty stupid and hoping no one was actually paying any attention. While he didn't particularly care of others' opinions, he still cared about how he looked in front of others, if only a little bit when he had nothing better to think about.

The effect of his wave was… explosive. The box of the said wand caught on fire and Ichigo nearly freaked out before the fire was diminished by the old man's single wave. Ollivander in one swift movement took the wand from his hand and replaced it with another.

"No, no, no. Unicorn hair no, it seems, but do try this one…Dragon heartstrings and yew, eleven and three quarter inches."

Awkwardly, Ichigo attempted to wave it before the old man snatched the wand from him. "No, no. Yew is definitely not a good wood for you. Just wait here for a minute, I'll be right back."

He picked up both wands that Ichigo failed in using and strolled off.

"Err… you don't think I'll have to try the whole store, right?" he wondered uneasily.

"I hope not," Hinamori answered.

"Yeah, me too."

Ollivander returned, but this time with no box in his hand. Instead, he passed by them, into the line of shelves he was at just when Ichigo and Hinamori had arrived and they could hear him babbling. "I wonder… well, it does not hurt to try it out… Hm…"

"I don't like the sound of that," Ichigo mumbled.

Hinamori only smiled awkwardly.

Ollivander returned to the counter with three different boxes, one a bit dustier than the others. "There you go," he said, opening the dustiest box. "Try this one, Mr. Kurosaki. Phoenix feather core and yew tree, ten inches."

Looking carefully at the wand, having a very odd feeling that it wasn't going to work, Ichigo waved… and blasted one of the wand boxes through the store glass… or at least he would have had Ollivander not reacted as quick as he did, clearly making the glass impenetrable. The box bounced away, landing safely on the floor.

Ollivander was shaking his head thoughtfully. "I was sure that this fit you," he was muttering distractedly as he walked to pick up the fallen box. "It usually fits well with exceptional people… well, I guess not this time… Do you see the dark purple box, Mr. Kurosaki?"

"Err… yeah." It was the only box that actually held a wand inside at the moment.

"Ah, yes. Cracked down at the tip. So unfortunate…" And to Ichigo, "Do take the wand from there, Mr. Kurosaki, while I make sure this one does not explode," said Ollivander, carefully handling the box. "It is Dragon heartstring and the cherry tree – Sakura is how I believe you call it in Japan – twelve and a half inches. Be careful, however. Those wands tend to be rather… hazardous, if you will."

Eyeing the box warily, Ichigo, in rather slow motion, took the box and slid it open. The wand inside lay on a white cloth, with its' dark shade not quite what Ichigo was used on seeing with Sakura trees, but he had seen at least some of similar shade.

The wand looked smooth and the moment he had grasped it, he knew it was the right one. The tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach ought to be right. Still, Ichigo waved it, though the only reaction he got was a sensation of power flowing through him and Ichigo decided that even if Ollivander said it wasn't the right one, he'd take it anyway.

"How curious," Ollivander said, albeit he sounded as if he was talking to himself rather than to Ichigo. "How very curious, Mr. Kurosaki. It has been quite a while since I have last sold this wand combination."

"Yeah… Well, I'll take it, so…"

"Remember, Mr. Kurosaki. It is not you who chooses the wand, in fact, the wand chooses the wizard." The old man gazed at Ichigo profoundly. "We may as well prepare to expect great things from you, Mr. Kurosaki, very great. If I may ask, what happened to your previous wand?"

"Err… got broken," Ichigo murmured without looking at the shopkeeper.

"Broken? Hm… and yours, Miss Hinamori?"

Hinamori blinked at being addressed.

"M-mine? Ehh… I sort of… um… left it at home," she said quietly.

The old man was looking at them in such a way that Ichigo had one very odd feeling that he was able to read through everything they'd said. Expecting a comment on it, he was thoroughly surprised when Ollivander said, "Well, we better then finish this up."

"Ahh… yeah…" Ichigo fought of the urge to scratch the back of his head, but he couldn't help feeling goose bumps after hearing the wand-maker's voice. "So… err… how much is this?"

"Fourteen galleons and sixteen sickles in total, Mr. Kurosaki," Ollivander said evenly.

Ichigo nodded, reaching for the money back and numbering out fifteen golden coins. "Keep the change," he said, determined not to mess around with how the money worked there. He'd had hard time understanding the general difference at all – working with them felt like a pressure he wasn't willing to bear. And was it seventeen sickles to a galleon or twenty-seven? Damn, he ought to listen more when people are explaining stuff. Either way, he was certain that they weren't on the loss. At least not a big one.

Besides, it was Yama-jii financing this trip. Why ever wouldn't he make use of it… only a little bit?

They left the shop with their wands safely tucked in their pockets and poker faces on, in silence. Reaching the main part of the Alley seconds later, they simultaneously stopped.

"So, we go to apothecary now?" asked Hinamori.

"Sure."

They were still rooted to the spot when Ichigo asked, "Oi, Hinamori… you think that guy knew what he was talking about? Wand being dangerous and all that?"

"Eh? You mean about your wand?"

"Not really, just…"

"I don't know," Hinamori said. She was avoiding to look at him, though, instead opting to stare straight ahead. "I really understand nothing about how the wands work and… I really don't know, Kurosaki-san. I'm sure it'll be just fine."

"Yeah…" he agreed half-heartedly. _Hopefully._

"So? Apothecary?"

"Let's go."

* * *

Hours later, Hinamori and Ichigo were sitting at Florean Fortescue's Ice-cream Parlor, two stacks of books resting on the third chair with a pair of cauldrons, scales, old looking telescopes, some potions ingredients and other necessary equipment. The two were long since enjoying their ice-creams while waiting for Remus Lupin to join them.

When he did, the ice-cream was long gone from their table.

"Ah, I see shopping went well," Remus noted with a smile as he settled in the final unoccupied chair. A reaction he was expecting was not the one that he got. Hinamori's lips twitched into a brief smile and Ichigo shrugged, a scowl etched in his face.

Lupin had, of course, noticed even before that the teen had the tendency to scowl, so he didn't give it much heed.

"Have you bought everything?" he asked instead.

Hinamori reached for the list, where Lupin noticed most of the things were scratched over. "Hm… all we need now is robes and a pet," she concluded. "We can get robes tomorrow and a pet shortly before we head to school."

"Why wait so long? I don't mind animals—"

"Oh, I just don't think cats would fit well with your place at all, Remus-san," Hinamori was quick to reassure him.

"Wait. You want a cat?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes."

"A _cat_?"

"Is it a problem…?" Hinamori asked uncertainly.

Ichigo's expression was incredulous, before settling into a frown. "Never mind… I just… don't like cats very much."

"Is it because of Yoruichi-san?" asked Hinamori conversantly.

He hesitated. "Not quite… Hey, how do you even know about that?"

"Well, don't worry. I'll make sure it stays with me at all times." Hinamori smiled and Ichigo got a distinct feeling that she was purposely avoiding to answer his question. It proved right when she turned to Lupin. "How was your work, Remus-san? In fact, I was wondering what your job was. You never explained us very well."

"Oh, I'm… a type of a professor, if you will – a tutor, I guess. Most of the time I'm helping out those who have trouble with certain spells. The pay is not much, but it's enough to get by," explained Remus.

"But you have an office?"

"No, not me. Actually, the office is the one of Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Headmaster. Seeing as he provided me with this job, I go to him to see if any new students have signed up. You see, there tends to be a demand for tutors rather a lot in the last days before Hogwarts."

"Oh, but we are taking all of your free time!"

"No, don't think of it like that, Momo," Lupin chuckled. "My working hours are limited to six – by the laws – and I can only tutor three students at the same time. Seeing as I am already tutoring three students that are quite proficient, I only visit them for short time. Perhaps I'll be absent sometime during the following few days, but never long."

"I see," said Hinamori. "I sure hope we are not getting in your way…"

"Of course you are not. This is a part of my job as well, Momo."

"Okay, then."

The silence fell over their table, before Hinamori skipped over to the inside of the shop to get more ice-cream for them. Lupin protested, though she refused to listen and said she'd get the vanilla one for him – but then he asked for tiramisu instead.

The moment she was gone, Ichigo's eyes focused on Lupin and the former professor didn't fail to notice it.

"So… what's all this with the Headmaster going senile?" he asked, seemingly casually.

Lupin looked startled. "How do you-?"

"Know?" Ichigo interrupted and shrugged. "Got the newspaper earlier… the moving pictures got me interested. How does that work, anyway? Wait, never mind. What's it all about this Dumbledore going 'batty', senile and talking crap about this He-Who-Has-A-Ridiculous-Name—damn, you probably know who I mean."

For over a second, Lupin's face looked startled, but then it changed to uncomfortable. "That is… not a subject to be discussed out in the open," he said, deliberately slowly. "I can tell you about it once we are back in my flat. Here is a bit… too open for such discussions. And yes, I do know exactly who you mean."

The scowl on Ichigo's face was just as if it turned more prominent, but then Lupin realized it must have been the trick of the light – for the said teen's face looked the way it normally did.

"All right," Ichigo said. "It's not like I want to get into all the political crap… I got enough of that back at home."

Before Lupin had gotten a chance to ask him what exactly he meant by that, Hinamori returned with three portions of ice-cream: tiramisu for Lupin, cherry and something yellow for her, and hazelnut and vanilla for Ichigo.

"Sorry, Kurosaki-san. You said you've had enough chocolate the last time so I experimented a little. I hope you don't mind," she said.

"Nah, it's fine," Ichigo said.

They ate ice-cream mostly in silence, until Lupin noticed something shiny in Hinamori's pocket. He said nothing, however, but Ichigo failed not to see the puzzlement on the man's face, before it dissolved into one of mock-scolding.

"You're having a really bad influence on me, you two. We should be eating lunch right now, not ice-cream," he said.

Hinamori giggled, but it was high-pitched enough that even Ichigo wondered whether she was faking it. "Enjoy while you can, Remus-san. It would've been such a pity if we missed this chance."

"It doesn't sit very well with me that you have insisted to pay, Momo. It's the only money you have while you are here. You shouldn't be wasting it on treating me with ice-cream."

She dismissed it. "Oh, please don't worry. It's the least I can do for your hospitality. Besides, I can always send an owl to my family to get me more if I need."

Lupin had said something quietly, but none of the two students indicated that they heard him. They left the Diagon Alley about a quarter of an hour later, Ichigo and Hinamori hardly dealing with their stacks of books before Lupin teased them and performed a charm that made the stuff feather-light.

It would've been great if only Hinamori's History of Magic book hadn't been sent flying by a dash of wind only minutes later. Lupin got it back effortlessly. Seconds later and without any explanation, he had all the items shrunken and stashed in two different pockets in his shabby coat.

They would've liked saying that the rest of the day continued on in the same fashion.

Not that it had, really.

As soon as Lupin closed the door behind him, Ichigo said, "So?"

Seeing as their last discussion had been about the first year curriculum, Lupin was reasonably confused. "Excuse me?"

"My bad… You said we could talk about it when we get here, so, what is up with all the stuff in the paper?" Ichigo said.

"Oh, so that is what… sorry, I didn't realize," Lupin said hastily.

"So, what's it about?" asked Hinamori.

"Well, I guess there's no going around it," Lupin said with a sigh. "But before I start, you have to tell me what you know already, so that I could know where to begin."

Lupin was observant enough to catch the short look the two teens exchanged. However, he was not nearly fast to think about it, when Hinamori said, "Well, we know the newspaper is saying that headmaster Dumbledore is going crazy." She frowned. "But they weren't giving any explicit reason other than old age and that just sounds silly."

"Oh, so you picked up on that," Lupin said with a small smile, as he showed them to take the sofa. The two did, while Lupin settled in the armchair.

At their quizzical look, he added, "Not many people do, nowadays. They either believe the Ministry or Dumbledore. There are several refraining from stating their opinion, but even those have probably already taken sides."

"Why?" Hinamori asked. "There was also something referencing to an issue that had been printed earlier, about someone who's not named, but it's as if they expect everyone to know about it. I'm really confused."

Lupin ran a hand through his hair. "Well, the newspaper isn't exactly intended for foreign students to read them," he said. "Especially not the _Prophet_."

"I guess these things don't happen very often then," Ichigo muttered. "Studying aboard, I mean…" he added quickly.

"Well, you are right about that," Lupin admitted. "Well, seeing as you know about the main characters, I'll explain you this briefly. There is no point of dragging you into the political conflicts around here."

"I'd appreciate that," Ichigo deadpanned.

Lupin smiled, albeit it didn't reach his eyes.

"Several months ago, a wizard who had been believed to be dead has returned," Lupin started. "This wizard had, many years ago, been proclaimed dead and most of the Britain felt – and still feels – that he should stay so. He had done horrible things, truly horrific. I cannot and will not tell you more about it. It is enough for you to know that for everything he had done, some consider even death to be too weak of a punishment."

Hinamori tilted her head. "Is that…?"

"Yes. That is He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, as they refer to him in the newspaper," Lupin confirmed.

"And he's come back from the dead?" Ichigo asked skeptically.

"Technically, he's not," Hinamori said. "You can't come back from the dead… Which means he probably wasn't dead to begin with."

"Well, that is the general conclusion," Lupin said. "He's been gone for over thirteen years, but no one knows where he's been hiding or even how he had stayed alive even though he should have died, but that is hardly the issue at the moment."

"Don't know 'bout you, but I do consider a dead-man-walking to be an issue," Ichigo muttered through his teeth.

Hinamori's fists clenched.

"Continue, Remus-san," she said before Lupin got a chance to retort.

Sighing, Lupin did.

"Of course that is an issue, Ichigo, but first we have to convince the Ministry that he's back – which is the reason this whole problem had even started. You see, the Minister of Magic is… rather paranoid."

Ichigo refrained from asking about the Minister of Magic, instead repeating, "Paranoid?"

"He's afraid Dumbledore wants to take his place by creating a scandal, which is fairly ridiculous because it was Albus who had given up on that position in favour of staying at Hogwarts."

"That… doesn't make much sense," Hinamori muttered.

"No, it doesn't," Lupin agreed. "But the Minister hardly cares. The rest of the problem lies in that he's refusing to believe it, and most of his employees follow suit. Even despite the irrevocable evidence—"

"Wait—there's evidence and the guy still doesn't believe it?" Ichigo asked incredulously.

Lupin shifted awkwardly. "Well, there isn't any… physical evidence, so to speak… but two Hogwarts students had seen it happen – and only one survived to tell the tale."

"Only… one?" Hinamori breathed.

Lupin nodded sullenly. "Unfortunately. Cedric Diggory was one of very likable students. He was a great Quidditch player and his marks weren't lacking far behind. His death was… a shock to the Nation, and that is putting it mildly."

"I don't get this," Ichigo sighed. "So they have a dead student and a witness and they _still_ don't believe it?"

Hinamori shuddered. "It's like when I… when I got to fake Karakura," she whispered, her arms closing around her stomach and her hands gripping her elbows, her head bowed down. "I… had evidence I needed, but still, I… I had to see—I had to feel it to believe it…"

"Shut up," Ichigo said, her words reminding him profoundly of one of the worse days in life. "It's not the same. Anyways, it doesn't make sense. A witness is not enough?"

Lupin smiled sadly, though he had carefully tried to figure out what the two had been talking about. "No, it isn't," he said. "Not when that witness has a long history of being a troublemaker… and a hero."

Ichigo winced. Somehow, that _did_ sound familiar. Soul Society hardly _ever_ listened to him before.

Hinamori seemed to have made the connection as well, when she whispered, "A nail that sticks up gets hammered down."

Ichigo looked at her in surprise.

Lupin seemed to be taken aback. "I guess…" he managed. "That's surely one way to put it. Dumbledore and Harry do have a tendency to stick up for what they believe in."

Silence crept into the room.

"Harry?" Hinamori breathed.


	4. Chapter 3: Mutual understanding

A/N: From this point on, updates are probably going to be a bit slower, what with schoolwork and all. It's really heating up right now and the chapters coming after this are going to get quite a bit longer.

Personally, I'm not all that satisfied with this chapter. Not much happens and I'd rather just jump straight to Hogwarts, but it's kind of important for further development, so I have to stick with it. Oh well.

Edit note: Thanks to SeanHicks4 for spotting a grammar mistake which I'm very prone to making all the time! Thank you very much!

* * *

Chapter 3: Mutual understanding

"Harry?" Hinamori breathed.

Lupin was looking at her oddly. "Yes, Harry—oh you don't know. I'm sorry; it's just that sometimes it is strange when someone doesn't know."

"What do you mean? What is strange?" repeated Hinamori. "What… are you talking about, Remus-san?"

"Harry Potter," he said shortly. "Everyone knows… I… sorry, let me explain this properly. You see, fourteen years ago, right before his supposed death-"

"That evil wizard?" Hinamori asked.

"Yes, Voldemort," Lupin said. "The night he vanished, he was out to kill a family; the Potters. He killed the elders; Lily and James, but he failed to kill their son, Harry. The curse he used rebounded and by all rights should have killed him instead. No one knows the exact reason he'd stayed alive."

"No, really?" Ichigo mumbled quietly.

"Kurosaki-san, this isn't a joke!" Hinamori said.

"I know, I know, geez… take it easy…"

Hinamori frowned at him, but said nothing on the subject. "So… this Harry Potter…"

"Is a student at Hogwarts at the moment," Lupin said easily. His voice as if suddenly had become a lot lighter, much easier to follow through. "I believe you may even be in the same year."

"He's fifteen?" Hinamori questioned. Ichigo couldn't make sense of why, seeing as they already knew that, but never mind. Seconds later, it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Why, yes. Yes, he is."

"Wait… that makes him one year old when that other creep tried to kill him…" Ichigo said incredulously.

"That is the other part of the mystery," Lupin said. "How could have a baby repelled an unstoppable curse?"

"That _is_ a good question…"

"But he's all right now? And he's considered a hero? So why doesn't the Ministry believe him?" asked Hinamori. "It is… unprofessional and…" she stopped there, shaking her head.

"I think I told you he's a little bit of a troublemaker, didn't I?" said Lupin.

The two nodded.

"Well, you better turn that little bit into quite. There has, as of yet, been no year at Hogwarts without a scandal arising with him in the midst of it… And most of the things aren't even his fault…"

"But he gets to clean the mess?" Ichigo said.

"Something along those lines, I'd say," Lupin said exasperatedly. "It gets even more complicated than that, but that is the gist of it."

"That's some pretty nasty problem you've got here," Ichigo murmured, but he could see it happen. The situation had reminded him awfully much of his own and a little sympathy for Potter was something he could afford.

"You're kidding me, right?" Lupin said. "I'd rather call it Murphy's Law at its best. Or worst, depending on how you take it."

Ichigo snorted in amusement.

Hinamori blinked.

"Um… Murphy's law?" she asked.

"Human thing," Ichigo said and only when Hinamori nodded did he realize exactly what he'd said.

Lupin was looking at them curiously. "So, your term for Muggles is… human?" he asked.

"Something along those lines, yeah," Hinamori admitted quickly, with a sheepish grin plastered over her face.

Lupin raised an eyebrow.

"Well, now that we're finished with the serious stuff," Ichigo said, stretching his arms. He turned to Lupin. "How about we unpack those books and all?"

"That's… not a bad idea. And oh, look at the clock! I better get some lunch soon. Would you mind it if I only returned your things into normal while you organize it?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Ichigo said.

Lupin smiled a little before taking out the whole of their things from his pockets, unshrinking them and returning them their natural weight. Ichigo was staring at the pile, his eyebrow twitching.

"This might take some time," he muttered.

Beside him, Hinamori chuckled awkwardly. "Ah… probably."

They were still at the process of separating things when Lupin announced he was going to a convenience store and should be back shortly. Only after the door was long locked and the two were alone did either of them say anything.

"You think this wizard dude could be a Hollow?" Ichigo asked.

Hinamori's hold on the Standard Book of Spells, grade five, tightened. "I doubt," she admitted. "An Arrancar is plausible, but not everyone would be able to see it… And it is still possible that this wizard never even died… then there's the issue of the wizard's Reiatsu. I'm pretty sure Remus-san's is around seventh seat level, possibly sixth."

"That's… pretty high," Ichigo muttered.

Hinamori nodded. "It is… but at least now some things make sense. I admit I was very curious as for why would a teenager ever need a bodyguard in form of a spirit… but now it fits. This Dumbledore, for whatever reason, wants to protect Potter from whatever trouble he may get into."

"Well, it certainly makes sense if you put it that way," Ichigo said, stashing the cauldron in his arms, the Potions ingredients he'd bought resting inside.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kurosaki-san! I… I really shouldn't be letting you get involved with this. You already have something you should be working on—"

"That's okay, I don't really mind," Ichigo said. Hinamori looked at him in wonder, but he quickly looked away. Coughing, he said, "What I meant, this whole thing has me curious as well."

The confusion on Hinamori's face quickly changed into understanding and she nodded. "I guess… I guess I really shouldn't be surprised," she said. "You do have a record of getting into things you shouldn't."

"Hey, it's not my fault most of you don't know how to do your own damn job," Ichigo countered.

Soon he realized he had judged the situation wrong. Hinamori wasn't like Rukia or Tatsuki, to slam a fist in his face or give a snarky remark when he's pressing the wrong buttons. Judging by the crestfallen look on her face, she was more like Inoue, taking everything to heart.

"Hey, I didn't mean… err… I didn't mean to pour salt on an… open… wound… no… really," he said lamely.

Hinamori smiled a little, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"It's okay, Kurosaki-san," she said quickly. "You're right… We really should have questioned further the events at the time. I can hardly hold it against you, so really, it's all right."

Ichigo nodded briefly, frowning. "I guess…" he said uncertainly.

* * *

The remained of the week they had spent with Lupin had been unexciting and dull. Ichigo and Hinamori only had several days to go through first to fourth year material and familiarize themselves with it. Things would have been much easier if Lupin had let them practice magic with wands, but as he was fairly certain the Ministry wouldn't welcome it very much, they did it only when Lupin was out (which was every day for at least two hours) and at night.

They had managed to finish reading the third year curriculum by August thirtieth, leaving only the fourth for their final day. Unfortunately, fourth year had long since proven to be far more difficult than the previous three put together.

Ichigo was glaring at the page of a notebook ("Professor Flitwick was kind enough to loan me this for a short while," Lupin had told them) describing the effect of a Summoning spell. Aside from the incantation, there was nothing else giving away how the wand movements went.

"How the hell am I supposed to pull this off?" Ichigo asked to Hinamori.

This time, they were in his room (less likely for Lupin to hear them if they made noise accidentally) and it was roughly one in the morning of August thirty-first.

Hinamori took the paper, reading over it. "Hmm… I don't… Wait, I have an idea." Shuffling through the smallest fascicle, she reached for one of the papers. "Here it is, 'Swish and flick – the basic motions for most of the spells'. Unless otherwise instructed, it should work."

Ichigo scowled, but nodded nonetheless.

So far, magic wasn't going very well for him, though he only had Hinamori to compare to. Usually, she'd pick up spells on her first, second or third try – except for the Cheering charm. Somehow, that one never worked for her… or maybe it was just that it wasn't working on Ichigo. Still, she was fairly good, while he had a lot of trouble with some spells. Wingardium Leviosa he'd only picked up on his fifth try, Lumos on his first and the disarming spell he'd failed spectacularly, covering the window in neon pink color. How he'd managed that was beyond him. It took Hinamori hours to come up with a solution and in the end she just broke the window and made sure Lupin had to replace it, not _repair _it.

Neither of them wasted a lot of time on working with spells, however. Twenty minutes per five selected spells was the most they'd done so far, in order to finish up with all the theory material; they could do magic once they were at school.

However, some spells – mostly deemed as a must know – they had to try out. And Summoning Spell was one of those.

Focusing on the wand movement and pointing it at the pillow, Ichigo said, "Accio."

Nothing happened.

He raised an eyebrow. "Nothing. Usually, there's this weird vibe when I try something, whether it works or not, but this time there was nothing."

Hinamori crossed her arms. "I don't know… Summoning Spell worked for me, though it didn't go all that well."

"Yeah, well, I'm hardly giving up," Ichigo said. This time trying to focus on the pillow, he muttered the spell.

He felt a small twitch in his hand and the pillow stirred, but otherwise remained in the same spot.

"Damn, and right when I was starting to think that I got a hang of it… Accio!"

Nothing. Not even a vibe.

"Maybe we should call it quits for the night, Kurosaki-san. We've been at this since early this morning. We've still got tomorrow, and after that we have a rather long ride to Hogwarts. There is time."

Ichigo only gripped his wand tighter. _Of course there is time. We're bound to spend the whole year there, liked it or not. Damn._

"Accio!" he snapped.

Again, the pillow didn't even stir.

Ichigo took a deep breath. "Point taken."

* * *

Waking up on the first of September had been particularly tiring, Ichigo noted as he grumpily walked into the common room. He'd succeeded in reading the whole fourth year material Lupin had loaned them, though he only managed that by three in the morning so reasonably, he was feeling sleepy and short-tempered.

A very familiar looking black cat resting in the armchair could hardly make him feel any better.

He blinked several times, to make sure he wasn't seeing things. After all, he was tired and sleepy and the cat looked as if it'd disappear in the mist any second now. The more he thought of it, the faster the cat was fading in the background.

"…Yoruichi?" he asked quietly. He got an impression that the cat was opening her mouth as if to say something, but no sound reached his ears. The image got blurrier until all he could discern was two golden eyes locked on his own.

"Wait, don't…" but don't want? This wasn't about Yoruichi, Ichigo realized with sudden clarity. It was about him and his abilities… or lack of those, for that matter. But he could see a blurry shape and he couldn't help feeling a little bit better because only several days of using magic had made some, rather miniscule, but undeniable progress.

The entrance door of Lupin's apartment opened and Lupin, with Hinamori in tow, walked in. They were chatting animatedly about something and the only words Ichigo's brain had yet managed to discern were 'cat', 'Yoruichi' and 'aware'.

But then Lupin turned to him and Ichigo could hear it as clear as day, "I see that you're awake, Ichigo. That's good. Momo and I were just out shopping for some cat food."

Ichigo nodded mutely.

Hinamori grinned sheepishly. "Remus-san bought me a cat, earlier," she said, pointing in the direction Ichigo could see a faint, misty figure of Yoruichi's cat form. "I decided to call her Yoruichi-san. Don't you think it fits?"

"A-ah… I guess," Ichigo mumbled. "It fits well."

And as they settled for breakfast, all Ichigo could think was, _Damn, I should've known the moment she mentioned a pet…_

Somehow, while the thought of Yoruichi travelling along was only a tiny bit unsettling to him, it was also making him feel a whole lot better. At least now he had some _definite_ proof that this whole magic business was not a fluke.

"I know you probably won't like this," Lupin started after the dishes were finally clean, "but we are going to have to head to the platform a little bit earlier."

Seeing the surprise in their faces, he quickly continued, "I mean, I have a job interview at eleven so… uhh… and it takes time to get there. I'll probably need to drop you off there at about half past ten…"

Hinamori and Ichigo exchanged a look.

"I guess that's all right," Hinamori said. Then she smiled. "You can't tutor students that are at school, after all."

Lupin avoided facing either of them when he agreed. "Do you have your trunks ready?"

"Trunks?" Ichigo questioned.

"Well how were you intending to get your books and cauldrons and clothes to Hogwarts?"

"Err…" _That's a good question,_ Ichigo thought. "Suitcases?"

"Don't tell me…"

"There's nothing on the list about trunks!"

"And you told me you've packed? Oh, Merlin…" With that, Lupin promptly disappeared.

Both Hinamori and Ichigo stared at the place he just vanished from.

"What the hell?"

Lupin returned about fifteen minutes later, immediately ordering them to transfer everything they were taking in the trunks and in short explained them how to un-shrink their suitcases that were now resting in the corner of the trunk.

"I don't get it," Ichigo grumbled as they walked over platform seven. "What's wrong with suitcases? They're definitely easier to carry… and they take less space…"

"It's tradition," Lupin informed them. "And here I thought Japanese were a traditional nation…"

"Hey, that's hardly fair," Ichigo countered.

"Let's just not make a big matter of this, all right?" Lupin said, stopping in front of a barrier between platforms nine and ten. "I'll assume you don't know how to go through it?"

"If I knew what you're talking about…" Ichigo started.

"You see that wall?"

"Err… yeah…"

"I want you to walk through it. If you're nervous, just make a run for it."

"Wait, you want me to _run_ through a _wall_? You nuts or what?"

"That's the only way to get to Hogwarts Express," Lupin said noncommittally.

"You want me to _run_ through a wall? Are you out of your freakin' mind?"

"Do it, Kurosaki-san."

Whatever Lupin was about to say died on his lips when he heard Hinamori's command and Ichigo turned to her, not bothering to hide how much he disliked the thought of doing it.

"Have _you_ hit your head or something?" he asked.

"Kurosaki-san, just do it. The wall is covered with Reiatsu unlike anything I've ever felt before. I can assure you, it's not solid," Hinamori said.

Ichigo's grip on the trunk tightened. "If you say so," he muttered darkly, though it took him a lot to do it. With a glare towards the barrier, he nodded firmly. "All right, then." And making sure that he was absolutely calm – he had no intention of running – he walked towards the wall. When the barrier was right in front of him, he closed his eyes and _walked_.

Something in the air shifted and the noise around him changed instantaneously.

Ichigo opened his eyes only to find himself staring at a sign reading, 'Platform nine and three quarters', and behind it was a large, scarlet engine with Hogwarts Express written in front.

Hinamori emerged beside him seconds later, and Lupin followed her shortly.

"See?" she said with a smile.

Ichigo resisted the urge to groan.

"Have fun at Hogwarts, you two," Lupin said as he helped Hinamori get her trunk on the train. "If you've got no other plans, remember that you can come over to my place during Christmas Holiday. Have a safe trip and I'd like to hear your impressions of the school. Hopefully it'll allure you like most so you'll have to be back next year."

"We'll see," Hinamori said. "Hm, we could probably write you on a weekend, I guess. The school allows students to use the owls, doesn't it? Maybe I should have bought one, too. Just in case."

"That's all right, there are school owls, of course," Lupin said. "Have a safe trip."

"Thank you. Good luck on your job interview."

"Ah, thank you, Momo."

Ichigo could have sworn that it was guilt in Lupin's face he was seeing, but he decided not to think much about it.

"Thanks on your hospitality, Remus. See ya," he said. Climbing further into the train, the two waved over to the lone man in the platform. So far, there had only been several oddly dressed people around, but having seen what their school uniforms looked like, Ichigo decided that wizard's dressing style in general sucked.

Lupin disappeared from the platform soon enough.

"So, the first cart or the last?" Hinamori asked.

"Last… less annoying people there," Ichigo said.

Pulling their trunks along, the two settled in a compartment near the middle of the last cart, each taking a seat by the window.

"He was lying, you know," Hinamori said suddenly.

"Eh? What?"

"Remus-san," she clarified. "He was lying about the job interview."

"You sure about that? He seemed suspicious, yeah, but—"

"His fists clenched, he avoided looking at either of us and his voice faltered. He was lying, I'm sure of it. But he was also feeling very guilty about it."

Ichigo shrugged. "Well I doubt he brought us here earlier just to have someone kill us from a shadow. Besides, he's good with Dumbledore. Doing that would kinda kill the point of us coming here in the first place."

"Well, I guess you are right," Hinamori said. "I think he was lying about tutoring too, but I can hardly blame him. We've been lying to him a lot, too."

"Well, it's not like we could tell him you're dead and that I'm once again trying to become an equivalent of that," Ichigo pointed out.

Hinamori said nothing.

As he had nothing better to do, Ichigo pulled out the Defense Against the Dark Arts book, _Defensive Magical Theory_ and began reading through the first chapter. So far, that subject had proven to be the most interesting he'd yet found.

* * *

Kids safely shipped off on Hogwarts Express and the train already out on the move, Remus slumped into a seat at Grimmauld Place, which was empty of any other resident besides him and Sirius, along with Kreacher lurking somewhere upstairs.

"What's up with you, Moony? You look you've eaten one particularly nasty flavoured bean," Sirius noticed.

"It's nothing."

"Come on, you know you can tell me. You really look down. What happened?"

"Really, it's nothing... I just... Remember those two transfers I was looking over for the past week?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, Momo... and Ichigo, right? The Japanese joining Hogwarts?"

"Yes, them."

"What's up with them?"

"It's actually really stupid, you know."

"Geez, just say what's wrong already," said Sirius. "You're worrying me, Moony."

"It's nothing Padfoot... it just didn't feel right to lie to them so much. After all, I told them they could always rely on me if they needed. I know they've been withholding stuff from me and that sometimes they were outright lying as well, but they're decent kids... it just didn't feel right."

Sirius laid his hand on Remus's shoulder. "I hardly doubt you could have told them about the Order, Moony. Like 'hey, look at me, I'm a member of a secret anti-Voldemort unit, wanna join?' First of all, I honestly doubt that they'd even believe you."

"Well they did seem like smart kids," Remus said. "And they believed me when I explained them a little about Voldemort. I still can't believe they were completely clueless on what they were getting into."

"Not that it matters now," said Sirius. "Hey, what house you think they'll be?"

"Hm... I was wondering about it, too," Remus admitted. "So far, my guess is both of them in Ravenclaw. They were just so curious about the way things went here... Curious enough that I had to explain them why Potions were deemed important. I bet Ichigo's going to have a same opinion on Potions like Harry, after attending one of Snape's lessons. He didn't seem to like it very much."

"Who would ever in their right mind like Potions?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.

Remus shook his head with a definite smile. "Well, I suppose Momo could also be a Hufflepuff. She just gives out that vibe. Though I admire her love for cats. Have I told you? This morning we went to the Menagerie to get her a familiar. The moment we got there, the cats just... tackled her, I don't know how else to put it. And she chose the weirdest cat of all. Named it Yoruichi and if my knowledge of Japanese, which is very scarce, tells me anything, it's a really fitting name."

"Yeah? What? It means weird or something?" Sirius asked jokingly.

"Translates to 'night one', I think," Lupin said. "Perfectly fitting for a pure black cat with golden eyes."

"Well, that's certainly a new combination. I bet it'll get along with Hermione's Crookshanks just fine."

"It would be an interesting development," Remus agreed with a chuckle.

"You think Harry will get along with them?" Sirius wondered. "Wouldn't hurt having some foreign friends."

Remus chuckled even more. "Not sure about Harry, but I bet they'll get along with Hermione splendidly. There's so much one can hear from them. Hermione won't be satisfied until she'd pried out of them everything about their school and home."

Sirius winced. "I already feel sorry for them." Then he burst out laughing and soon enough, Remus joined him.


	5. Chapter 4: Forming bonds

Summary is changed purely because this new one is a bit more accurate. Hopefully, nobody's confused.

On to the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 4: Forming bonds

Over time, the train began filling with the students, but the two Japanese stayed blissfully isolated in their compartment, and Ichigo did find it a bit odd – but satisfactory – that no one seemed to be looking at them the wrong way. Maybe around here people wouldn't be making fun of his hair.

It wasn't until fifteen minutes after the train started moving – and no single word spoken between him and Hinamori – that somebody had entered. In fact, those were two girls – one clearly of Indian origin, and the other with curly light-brown hair.

"Hello," the first one greeted. "Do you mind if we enter shortly? The boys in our compartment are trying out a new spell and – well, those things never go right, if you get what I mean."

They didn't seem to have noticed that Hinamori was already dozing off and Ichigo wasn't far from falling asleep as well.

"Okay."

They entered, shutting the doors behind them, and settled closer to the door.

"So," the curly-haired one said, "you are the transfer students that the whole train is buzzing about?"

Ichigo was taken aback with the blunt statement. He looked up from chapter eight of the defense book, which was finally beginning to get interesting with the whole talk of Dark Magic and some other stuff related to magic in general, to stare at the girl. She was staring back curiously.

"Err… Yeah," Ichigo muttered. "I mean, yeah. We are."

"Oh, it's great to meet you!" the other one chirped. "My name is Parvati Patil, and this is Lavender Brown. Welcome to Hogwarts! You'll enjoy it here."

Ichigo opted not to outright disagree with her and said, "Yeah…? Well, I'm Ku—Ichigo Kurosaki. And that's Hinamori."

Both girls seemed genuinely friendly, but they did give slightly amused looks to the asleep Shinigami.

Apparently opting not to disturb her, Parvati, said, "Oh, so where are you from, Ichigo?"

The said teen winced at how wrong his name sounded while rolling off her tongue and he mentally reprimanded himself that he'd have to get used to it.

"Karakura town," he said, then quickly added, "Japan."

The flower-girl-or-something 'oh'-ed and chuckled, while the other one smiled. "That's pretty far," she said. "How long did it take you to get here?"

"Err… walk to Urahara's place notwithstanding, probably around ten minutes."

The girls gasped.

"Or maybe more," Ichigo said thoughtfully. "I still don't get how those effing Portkeys work…"

At this, Parvati chuckled. "Yes, I have never liked those means of transportation myself. I prefer side-along Apparition, even if that is… uncomfortable. The Floo usually just ruins everything on me, from my hair to my shoes."

Ichigo was on the verge of asking what the side-along Apparition and Floo were, before he stopped himself and realized that those things were clearly a must-know. Couldn't make a fool of himself – yet.

"Yeah, well… walking on foot gets the medal with me," he said dryly. Though, he'd prefer Shunpo any day.

The flower-girl seemed to find his dry remark rather humorous, as she began chuckling loudly.

"Are you perhaps a Muggleborn?" she asked. "Statements along those lines I usually hear from Muggleborns," she added, as if to explain herself.

"Err…" Ichigo thought hard on this. Urahara had pondered that subject once – when he first told him about magic – but even he wasn't quite clear on whether Ichigo was or was not a Muggleborn, for reasons unbeknownst to Ichigo. Still, he knew which would be better to say in this case. "Yeah. Gotta say you have some really, really weird stuff here. Barrier is still puzzling me totally. Even Japan's more normal than that."

Both girls chuckled heatedly at that, hard enough to wake up the asleep Shinigami Lieutenant. Hinamori was blinking at the girls rapidly, and then turned, rounding on Ichigo immediately.

"Kurosaki-san! Why didn't you wake me up?"

"It's not like you ever told me to," Ichigo pointed out with a sigh.

She pouted, but thankfully, backed down. "Well, you're right… I guess. Uh, I'm Momo Hinamori. It's nice to meet you."

The Hogwarts girls exchanged a single look, both inquisitively turning to Hinamori a second later.

"Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown," Parvati repeated, pointing to herself then to the flower-g—no, Lavender, and smiled. "So what year are you going to attend?" she asked. "There were rumors going around how one of you is to attend the sixth and the other seventh year, but those were _rumors_…"

"Oh, we're both in fifth year," Hinamori corrected her.

"Really? You're in our year?" the flower-girl asked – and the conversation turned to that subject, thankfully with Hinamori taking over.

Ichigo found it as a perfect excuse to get back to the short description of Dark Magic he'd found – one that he hadn't heard mentioned before at all – not even in Lupin's notes. All he got there were the information on some Dark Creatures, but magic? Not really.

"Hey, is that your cat?"

"Yes. Isn't she pretty? Name's Yoruichi."

The girls continued chatting animatedly for at least half an hour, with Ichigo sometimes adding a remark or two on his own. It was freaky, he realized, to be constantly surrounded by girls who were only talking of fashion and their rather non-satisfaction with Hinamori's bun. Not to mention the fact that both girls were perfectly capable of seeing Yoruichi which was currently only worsening Ichigo's mood.

"Lavender-chan! You can't just do that without permission! Ai—" Hinamori flustered when Lavender stole the cloth and completely set Hinamori's hair free. Her hands covered her mouth in shock. As for the other two girls, they found it hilarious.

"Actually, I think I like it," Hinamori admitted after a second with a giggle.

Conversation only got louder after that – at least with the girls. Ichigo tried to stay out of it as much as possible.

It wasn't until a lady knocked on the door with a trolley packed with food parked outside their compartment that the girls jumped to their feet, screaming. "Oh Merlin, I didn't realize we have been here for so long! We'll see you at the feast, Momo, Ichigo!" And then they were gone in a flash of what could have rivaled a Shunpo.

The only one left at the door now was the trolley lady and she was looking at the two teenagers warmly. "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Hinamori goggled at the offered goods, reaching for the bag money. "Those Chocolate Frogs look interesting," she said. "How about four of them?"

"That will be two Sickles and six Knuts," the lady said and then continued over to the other compartment as Hinamori gave her the money.

"Hm…" She stared at the oddly shaped boxes. "You don't think they are real; do you, Kurosaki-san?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Wouldn't surprise me if they were," he said honestly.

He hadn't even blinked when she screamed as the frog escaped Hinamori's hold, jumped around for quite a bit until it eventually managed to escape through the compartment window, seeing as he was still focused on the book. Seconds later, she was eyeing the box disappointedly, saying, "Why would someone ever make a chocolate frog that is capable of running away?"

"Look at it this way, they're expecting for the frog to run back home so the manufacturers get to eat it instead of those who bought it," Ichigo said absently, flipping through another page of the Defense book.

"That… doesn't make much sense," he heard her whisper. Not that he cared.

After that, they spent hours of silence in the compartment, both of the teens completely occupied with what they were reading; Ichigo the defense book, Hinamori the History of Magic. Shortly after he had begun reading chapter fifteen, Ichigo slammed the book shut, growling. "Aside from two pages, the whole book as is annoying as the name suggests. Talk about not judging a book by its cover."

"Well, textbooks usually are that way," Hinamori joked awkwardly.

"Hey, that Urahara's notebook thingy? Is it with you?" Ichigo asked suddenly.

"It's in the trunk, somewhere," Hinamori said thoughtfully. "Why? Is something the matter?"

"Nah, not really. Just wanna see if it works… or at least _how_ it works."

Hinamori nodded, bending down to her trunk. It took her about five minutes to find the dark green notebook in the mess of her trunk before giving it to Ichigo, who immediately opened the first page. "Let's see…"

'_THE SECRET NOTEBOOK'  
-user manual-_

Ichigo, of course, snorted at the name as soon as he read it. What kind of a name was _'The secret notebook'_ anyway? It couldn't be anything else but a scam, and if the name wasn't enough, the following instructions in Japanese definitely were.

_To contact family/friends, write their name in [Family name, given name] format (written in Japanese, of course) on page fourteen.'_

'_To translate something (Japanese to English), turn page twenty-four.'_

'_To translate something (English to Japanese), turn page twenty-five.'_

'_To contact Hitsugaya's team, turn to page thirty-one and write anything.'_

'_To let Urahara-san know how greatly you miss him, turn the page thirty-nine.'_

'_For any additional questions, use the last page as FAQ and wait for response.'_

_Singed, Urahara Kisuke, the most incredible shop owner ever!_

Slamming it closed, Ichigo rolled his eyes. "All right, whoever let Urahara write instructions is going to regret this."

He heard Hinamori snicker, but otherwise she said nothing. With another contemplating look towards the dark green notebook, he opened it again. Numbering the pages, he stopped at what he'd hoped to be page fourteen.

_Let's see if this works…_

Taking a pen from his own pile in the trunk, Ichigo tapped it to the paper. All right. So who was he trying to contact? Since it was about eight hours later in Japan, Ichigo decided that trying to get in touch with his family wouldn't really work. So he needed someone else. Frowning, he wrote before he could change his mind.

_[Kuchiki, Rukia]  
Yo_

Several minutes passed without anything happening, so with a sigh, Ichigo closed the book.

"You mind it if I keep it with me?" he asked, a tiny part of him hoping it worked.

"Not at all, Kurosaki-san," Hinamori informed him.

He nodded, pushing both the notebook and the pen into his trunk.

Admittedly, he was glad that it occurred to him to take a pen along from Japan. Back then it seemed like a ridiculous thought, but now that he knew that students were supposed to write with quills… Ichigo shuddered. Nah. Pens rocked. He only regretted not taking more of those. One pen would hardly be able to last for the whole year.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to walk around the train, to see if I can learn when we'll be arriving and how exactly we're getting to school. Remus-san said Hogsmeade was about a mile or so away from Hogwarts," Hinamori said.

Absently, looking through the window at the cloudy, darkening sky, Ichigo nodded. "Go ahead. Just don't get lost or something."

For some completely incomprehensible reason to him, she laughed.

_Girls are so weird, _he thought_._

Staring at the gloomy weather outside, he hoped it wasn't going to stay that way and even more he hoped it wasn't going to rain. Recently, he had started hating rain as much as Zangetsu once had. Not that it had ever been his favorite weather.

He stretched his legs over where Hinamori had been sitting earlier, leaning on to the window. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the dark valleys the train was going through. Just the thought of spending so many _months_ away from everyone had him wishing to just bolt out of the train and head back. The fact that he'd be able to get his powers back if he stayed was the only thing holding him there. Ideally, he'd be able to go home during that Christmas holiday Lupin mentioned.

Hinamori returned about half an hour later, seemingly very excited and Ichigo thought that to be a good thing. Sometimes she looked so aloof and silent that he was actually contemplating on asking her if she was all right. Seeing her cheerful and excited had to be a good thing.

Or at least that's what he thought – until she threw him out of the compartment without a word of explanation.

"Wha—" was as far he got before the door slammed shut in his face and the curtain was drawn.

"What the hell?"

Briefly, he wondered if this was Rukia channeling her spirit through Hinamori in some rather unexplainable way.

And then he remembered the green notebook, currently lying at the bottom of his trunk. Somehow, he had a weird sense of foreboding about it.

Finally, when the train began slowing down, the breaks screeching, Hinamori opened the compartment door. Ichigo, who had spent most of the time looking out the window in the corridor, rounded on her.

"Oi, what the _hell_ was that for?"

She scratched the back of her head and shrugged, something akin to a grin covering her face.

"Sorry for taking so long, Kurosaki-san. I had to talk to Yoruichi-san a little…" And together with the faint shape of a cat in her embrace, she let him inside and stepped outside herself. "It's your turn now."

"My turn for what?" Ichigo demanded.

"To change, of course. We can't go inside if we're not in school uniform."

That's when Ichigo realized she was wearing the school robes.

Train lurched to a stop.

Ichigo mentally cursed. By the time he was tumbling out of the crimson engine, his plain white button shirt wasn't exactly buttoned the right way, but the v-neck jumper over saved it from being spotted, though it felt a bit off. The trousers he wore were _not_ all that comfortable and after seconds in the outfit, Ichigo felt like he had been pushed in a casserole.

As the cold wind hit him the moment he stepped out, he decided that the uniforms were made to fry him for a very good reason.

Hinamori, for her part, no longer resembled a girl Ichigo'd spent several days with. A shirt, jumper and a tie (which she had decided to put while Ichigo failed to dig out his own), were rather similar to Ichigo's, but several sizes smaller. Instead of trousers she wore a knee-length dark skirt and Ichigo wondered how the hell she wasn't freezing in that right now. With the addition of her hair down and a warm and friendly smile, she was likelier to fit in at Hogwarts much better than him.

"I forgot to ask Hermione-chan to tell me what we should do after we get out of the train," Hinamori said as they got out of the large crowd, in a bit emptier part of the train station while a woman's voice called the first years to gather around.

"Transfers over here as well!" they heard the shrill yell.

"Guess the woman just solved it for us," Ichigo muttered.

They approached, only to hear the woman say, "You go with the older years by the coaches. I'm pretty sure that even from there, the sight will leave you breathless."

Ichigo and Hinamori opted not to respond as they followed the taller group of students towards a large number of carriages… and among them were the oddest creatures Ichigo had ever seen. They resembled horses, in a way, but that was only his first thought. The wings, the milky, pupil-less white eyes and their skin hanging off them, making every single bone visible soon convinced him otherwise.

"What… are those things?" he found himself whispering.

Hinamori shook her head, inclining that she had no response. "They have… Reiryoku," she mumbled. "It's… like nothing I've ever felt before."

"Hollows?" Ichigo asked instantly.

Hinamori frowned. "No. At least I don't think they are… It's weak. It's different. I can't… If I had to draw parallels, I think it's actually the most alike to those of Hollows, but not… I don't know. I can't explain it, Kurosaki-san. All I know is that it has no bad intentions…"

"Well, it's still creeping me out," Ichigo muttered darkly as he climbed into one of the coaches. Hinamori followed after him with a shudder.

No matter how the creature had no bad intentions, Ichigo couldn't shake the odd, sinking feeling he had about it. It was making him queasy and that's not something he'd ever take lightly.

"Kurosaki-san, do you perhaps know where Yoruichi-san left?" Hinamori asked suddenly.

"Why would I…? Wait, she's _gone_?"

"Well, she asked me to put her down the moment we got out of the train," Hinamori mentioned.

Ichigo mentally cursed. _Well now we're screwed._ "Nope. No clue where she is."

They sunk into now a bit more comfortable silence, as they watched through the windows the terrain they were going through, slowly approaching the magnificent castle towering above them.

"Whoa…" Hinamori breathed.

"It's huge… Guess Urahara wasn't joking when he said the place was enormous," Ichigo commented. The castle turned out to be even more massive then what they'd first assumed, with its many towers lengthening high towards the sky. "Damn, it's not as large as Las Noches, but it's definitely more impressive."

Hinamori opted not to comment, instead just continued bawling at the sight in front of her. For a difference of Ichigo who had seen things like this (or at least similar) either on TV or internet, Hinamori had never seen anything even remotely resembling it. At least that's what he assumed. The Shinigami weren't very well introduced to the workings of the world of the living. Just remembering Rukia made him roll his eyes.

The inside of the castle was just as impressive as the outside, if not even more. Ichigo and Hinamori followed the students into what they called 'the Great Hall', where the groups either headed for the same tables, or split up and went for one of the four long tables there. Hinamori and Ichigo ended up standing in the middle of it, both clueless on where they were supposed to go.

"Any ideas?" he asked.

"Not in particular," Hinamori replied.

An older woman approached them, wearing poisonous green robes and a tall pointy hat. Her face was serious, giving off the impression that she was not a person to be toyed with. She spoke to them in a distinctly Scottish accent, "Good evening. I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress. Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Ah, Momo Hinamori!" Hinamori squeaked, bowing deeply. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Ichigo bowed a little as well, for the sake of courtesy. "Ichigo Kurosaki."

She seemed to approve, as she nodded and started speaking. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you go and take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

"Ah, yes, we heard that already," Ichigo mentioned.

"I see," the professor nodded. "Will I be right to assume that you know about the houses as well?"

"Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin," Hinamori counted. "Each one has its own characteristics and history, and we can earn or lose house points and… I think that's it. Yes, Remus Lupin-san explained us about it."

"If so, then follow me. We are to Sort you after the First years arrive."

Exchanging a short look, the two transfers trailed after McGonagall, towards a room behind the fifth table, which the Japanese assume had held the professors and the school staff. From the room they had entered, they followed McGonagall through various hallways that Ichigo could swear looked completely the same.

"Excuse me, but why are we being Sorted later?" asked Hinamori courteously, before it seemed like the woman was leading them in circle. Somehow, though neither Ichigo nor Hinamori managed to catch how, they ended up standing behind a long line of the first years before the entrance to the Great Hall.

"It is in our deepest respect to present you to the whole of the school population," McGonagall explained briefly. "If you were to be Sorted before, how would the first years ever learn who you are?"

That, while seeming a bit odd, did make some sense. Still, Ichigo could have gone without a bunch of bratty children knowing he was a transfer from god knows where.

They followed the instructions and waited until, as McGonagall informed them, an obvious cue would be given. About fifteen minutes later, Ichigo had grown tired of waiting and sat down on the cold marble with a frown.

"We aren't really treated like the guests here," he stated darkly.

Hinamori's exasperated sigh did nothing to reassure him. "Of course not… I'd bet on anything that Professor McGonagall is informed of exactly why we – I mean, I – am here." When Ichigo opened his mouth to retort, she quickly added, "You only must focus on your powers, Kurosaki-san. Let me handle my task."

Ichigo would have gladly given his own opinion on the subject – one that disagreed with her view of the situation entirely – but the door opened and he subconsciously bolted to his feet, never even getting a chance to respond.

The man in the center of the fifth table, with a beard that equaled Yama-jii's, was standing up, his arms gracefully held in front of him. He cleared his throat and every noise in the Great Hall ceased. "It is my pleasure," he spoke in rather jovial voice, "to announce that this year, Hogwarts will have the honour of hosting its first study abroad students in nearly two centuries."

The crowd began buzzing and there were several loud exclamations to his statement. The old man held out his hand and everyone had fallen silent at once.

"They are students from the Shino Academy of Magic in Japan, and will be attending classes with our fifth year students for the duration of term. I expect you all to treat them with the utmost respect and courtesy as representatives of their school and country," he announced. "It is our pleasure to welcome you to Hogwarts, Miss Momo Hinamori and Mr. Ichigo Kurosaki!"

The hall broke into applause and Ichigo realized that they were now a focus of a large group of very interested, very curious and very _noisy_ students. However, he tuned out their buzzing and instead focused on McGonagall, who was now talking.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be Sorted," she said.

Ichigo then spotted the said stool with a shabby old hat resting on it. He could only ponder on it for a second, before McGonagall called out, "Hinamori, Momo."

With a firm nod, the girl stepped ahead, placing the Hat on her head gingerly, and then sat on the stool. The hat quickly fell over her eyes, obscuring them from the view. She lifted it a little so she could look around. For several minutes, everyone watched in anticipation. Ichigo couldn't help wondering on just what kind of a weird, freak-ass _magic _principle could a _hat_ sort students into houses based off of their _personalities._ Lupin had mentioned something about a spell, but that was hardly even the point!

Hinamori's face, in the meantime, was a whirlwind of emotions. At first it was stoic, but then her eyes widened and she stiffened. Seconds later, she seemed as if she'd relaxed and then there was a brief smile on her face as the hat roared, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Hinamori smiled at Ichigo, before taking it off and laying it on the stool softly. She then skipped away to join the table that was applauding and Ichigo was left to stare at the hat with a very odd feeling forming down in the pit of his stomach.

"Kurosaki, Ichigo," McGonagall called, and he stepped ahead.

The moment he placed the weird hat thingy on his head, Ichigo got a rather strange feeling that the Sorting hat was actually _alive_. It didn't help when a voice spoke to his ear. _"Hm… you are definitely going to be a handful. You know, you're having me really curious around here, both of you. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now…"_

Ichigo wanted to ask what the hell the voice was on about, before a shrill yell filled both his ears and the rest of the room, "GRYFFINDOR!"

That, he concluded as he put the Hat down, was creepy. Still, he hadn't failed to recognize the Gryffindor table as the one that was essentially the loudest group he had ever had a chance to see.

In casual pace, he walked to the Gryffindor table, curiously trying to find any seat available – the table in itself was _packed_ with people. He wondered how all of them even had enough space to sit there and be comfortable at the same time.

"You can join us here, Ichigo!" he heard a call, and recognized the two girls waving at him from somewhere at the middle of the table. He approached, taking the empty spot in between Parvati and a dark-skinned student.

"Thanks," he said.

"Oh, please," she waved it off. "I knew at least one of you was going to join Gryffindor. I am a very good seer." She winked.

Ichigo honestly wondered if she meant with that what he thought she meant, before he dismissed it as something he'd have to learn about later – if ever. He still disliked the fate, fortunetelling, prophecies and rubbish like that. Hinamori was right, to a point. All he had to do there was focus on regaining his powers. All while trying to get a group of rather enthusiastic and positively curious students lay _off_. Piece of cake, really. Too bad not any single one intended on shutting up anytime soon.

"Where are you from?"

"Are you really fifteen?"

"Hey, your hair is _awesome_!"

"How do you like Hogwarts so far?"

Ichigo was very close to slamming his head to the table – or his fist into their faces, unless they stopped soon. Fortunately, that was when the Headmaster – he'd rolled his eyes at how long it had taken him to figure that out – stood up and began giving his speech.

Turned out the speech was nothing but a British, though less polite and much longer, version of Itadakimasu.

And as the food appeared on the table from literally nowhere, Ichigo wondered in what kind of a freak place he had entered, again. Mind you, food appearing from thin air actually could be rather… _surprising_… to someone who'd never even thought of a thing like that being possible.

_Can't be poisoned, I guess, _was what he thought before reaching for one of the odd looking dishes.

"So, what's your first impression of Hogwarts?" the teen next to him asked.

Ichigo shrugged as he bit off a large piece of _something_ and marveled at the taste. "Huge," he said when he was finally able to talk.

Parvati, flower-girl and several others, including the girl who introduced herself as Hermione seconds ago, giggled.

"So that Shino Academy is smaller?" the dark-skinned Gryffindor said.

Ichigo nodded. Urahara had warned them about those questions, if nothing else. Actually, they _had_ to say that the Shino Academy was small. Otherwise someone might question why no one else ever heard about it. Which was sort of obvious in itself.

"And that other big school over there? I heard there was one pretty large… name's starting with M," another of the students – younger, apparently – said.

"Mahoutokoro," the H-named girl supplied.

"Ah, that! Is it really big?"

Ichigo shrugged. "No clue. It's not like I've ever been there."

Throughout the dinner, Ichigo lost track how many students had actually asked him questions and he soon forgot what even most of those questions were. Some were quite a bit disturbing – and made the two girls, Parvati and Lavender (his brain finally worked), giggle like crazy – while the others were far more personal. And the H-named girl was… well, inquisitive. Somehow, Ichigo had yet to learn how, he managed to hold on to that smallest part of him and _not_ beat up the overly curious lot.

However, he was beginning to get desperate when people noticed that he'd finished eating and was now without an excuse to avoid answering their questions.

Fortunately, it was then that the Headmaster got to his feet again and the Hall silenced.

"That is Dumbledore?" Ichigo asked to Parvati, skeptically looking at the old man. Somehow, he was expecting him to look much more like Aizen. Or at least meaner. Or something. Not like a kind-hearted old grandpa with a fetish for long beards. At this point, McGonagall looked more of a mastermind than him. Or that greasy-haired professor a few seats away… or even the woman dressed in all pink… _ew_.

But still, as he remembered Aizen's treachery, he realized such façade perhaps was not all that far fetched.

"You didn't know?" Parvati asked him in surprise.

Ichigo's ever-present frown deepened. "I just got here."

"Oh – you're right," she said. "Well, yes, that's professor Dumbledore."

"He teaches?" Ichigo asked incredulously.

She laughed. "Of course not. I heard he used to teach Transfiguration, however."

She then quieted down, instead opting to listen to the Headmaster's speech. Sighing, he joined her.

"—in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students—and a few of our older students ought to know by now, too."

Ichigo heard several snickers from the side and wondered what that was all about.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four-hundred-and-sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door."

"That's a lot of times," Ichigo uttered under his breath.

Parvati stifled a chuckle, but refused to say anything. Apparently, it was a bit rude to talk while the Headmaster held his speech.

"We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was a round of polite but rather unenthusiastic applause throughout the Hall and Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the woman dressed in pink, who he assumed to be the Umbridge woman. The other one what with waiting for them down at the station could have hardly been completely new.

Dumbledore went on, "Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the—"

But then he broke off, looking inquiringly at the Umbridge woman. Ichigo turned to her, only to see her clear her throat and it became obvious that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.

"Is that a usual behavior around here?" Ichigo asked to Parvati, though the answer was pretty clear.

"No. Ew, that cardigan is so disgusting."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. _Girls…_

"Thank you, Headmaster," the woman simpered, "for those kind words of welcome."

Her voice was high-pitched, sounding as if she just ran a marathon (though with that fat ass, she could have run for about ten feet only) and little-girlish and Ichigo got a vague impression that he was not going to like her very much – if at all. The woman gave another little throat-clearing cough that was already beginning to annoy him and continued.

"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking up at me! I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"

Ichigo snorted in his juice. _Yep. Definitely not going to like this one._

"I'll be her friend as long as I don't have to borrow that cardigan," Parvati whispered to Lavender and both of them giggled like five-year-olds.

Umbridge then cleared her throat again, but when she continued, she sounded much more businesslike and her words had a dull, hours-and-hours-of-practice sound to them.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them for ever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching..."

Ichigo listened through the speech, hardly resisting the urge to yawn. When he finally succumbed to it, he noticed Parvati and her friend giggle even more, giving him appreciative looks.

He ignored them.

Observing the rest of the hall, Ichigo noticed that only several students were actually paying attention to the speech; the H-named girl a few seats away from him, at the other table Hinamori and a student a few seats away from her and even several more older ones along the table. He couldn't see the other two tables very well, however.

Briefly, he wondered what was so important about it. Obviously, the British ministry was interfering with the Hogwarts business and if Lupin's words were anything to go by, it was because they wanted the Headmaster out. Otherwise the woman never would've been giving such an annoying speech.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," Dumbledore said, bowing to her. "Now, as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held…"

That's where the attention of the crowd picked up again and Ichigo's skipped away even further. What kind of a word was Quidditch, anyway?

He blinked several times, suppressing a yawn, and asked Parvati, "So the Ministry and the magic school don't like each other very much… any great importance in that?"

There was utter shock in her face as she turned to look at him. "You were listening?" she said in small voice.

"You weren't?"

"Only the first few sentences," she admitted.

"Same. What was there to listen other than a lousy speech that made me want to get to a bed and get some sleep ASAP?" he muttered grouchily to himself.

Parvati chuckled. "Seems like your wish is about to come true," she said, as the Headmaster gave it a go for the students to go to their common rooms.

Ichigo snorted. "Finally." He stood up, following the swarming members of his house, which wasn't actually a very difficult task as he towered over most of them for quite a number of inches.

"So is there any particular reason you're not wearing the uniform as you should?" he heard the question in his ear only shortly after he had gotten a bit separated, and swished to his side. Parvati was standing there, a goofy grin in her face and Lavender was in tow.

"Don't do that again," he muttered, but he was pretty sure she could hear him even over all the noise.

"Sorry, I just didn't want to shout so that you could hear me," she said easily.

Ichigo sighed. "So they put you in detention for not wearing the uniform?" he asked exasperatedly.

"Not unless you're in class, but be careful not to run onto Snape like that. He'd gladly take points from a Gryffindor for anything at all," the flower girl replied.

Ichigo wanted to point out that he didn't even know who that was, but the other thing sounded more interesting. "And what are these points all about?" He'd heard both Lupin and McGonagall mention them, but neither had ever given him to-the-point explanation.

"Oh, you have so much to learn, Mr. Kurosaki."

The rate it was going, the two girls weren't going to change it, either.

He flinched at the wrong pronunciation. McGonagall's Scottish one had been even worse, but this was hardly an improvement.

Ichigo, with his two female companions, ended up reaching the Gryffindor tower before the rest of the big crowd.

"What was the password again?" asked Parvati.

"Mimbuius Mimbletonia," said Lavender and the portrait of a fat lady swung open.

Mentally, he groaned. He'd never be able to remember that.

The Gryffindor common room seemed rather warm; it was a cozy circular tower room filled with dilapidated squashy armchairs and century old tables. A fire was crackling in the fireplace and a few people were warming their hands by it before going up to their dormitories. On the other side of the room Ichigo saw a pair of twins conversing about something over a small paper and then the portrait swung open again, for another group of students to enter.

Sighing, he turned to Parvati. "So where exactly is my trunk right now?"

"Over there. Just climb up those stairs on the left and you'll see the fifth year boy dorms there. If that's where they put you, I mean. Who knows? You may sleep on the roof instead."

Ichigo snorted. "Right. Thanks."

When he got to the dorm, he noticed that two other students had already gotten there first and were in the process of unpacking their stuff.

"Oh, hullo," the one with the sandy hair said when he'd spotted him.

"Yo," Ichigo greeted, and paused. "Err… you know which of these beds is mine?" He goggled the four empty beds warily.

"Hm… that one's Longbottom's, Weasley's, and the other is Potter's. Yep, yours is the one in the corner," the dark-skinned one that Ichigo had been talking to earlier said. "Sorry, forgot to introduce down at the feast, I'm Dean Thomas."

"And I'm Seamus Finnigan," the other said.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," Ichigo mumbled.

"Hey, your English is pretty good," Dean noted. "American accent, though."

There was nothing malevolent in his voice, so Ichigo dismissed it easily. "Had a good teacher."

What with Urahara being the bastard, he'd actually told Ichigo he should get started with an Advanced English course only a week after he woke up from coma. Back then, it had seemed ridiculous and Ichigo had no idea why he had actually followed through with it, but he had. Technically, English was not his favorite subject. Frankly, he nailed it. That had nothing to do with Ichigo hoping Urahara had something in store. Really.

Ichigo only partially participated in further talk in favor of finding his trunk. He found it at the bottom of the bed that Dean had shown him and opened it, rumbling through for something he could use as pajamas. He had still been at it when Potter (who he'd recognized without trouble after several descriptions he'd been given) walked into the dorm with one other boy.

Ichigo was doing hard not to pay any attention to their conversation, instead rummaging through the whole of his trunk to get the damn 'secret notebook' out of there. Finally, with something of a victorious smirk, Ichigo grabbed it – and shuddered at the sudden feeling of heat it emitted. He dropped it on his bed where it flew open, but before Ichigo got to even look at it, the things in the dormitory got out of hand and Potter roared.

"I'll have a go at anyone who calls me a liar!"

"Don't talk to me like that!"

Ichigo's brow twitched as he narrowed his eyes at them. Would asking them to stop do anything at all?

"I'll talk to you how I want," said Potter as he reached for his wand. "If you've got a problem sharing a dormitory with me, go and ask McGonagall if you can be moved ... stop your mummy—"

Nope. Definitely not.

"Will you two just shut the hell up?" Ichigo snapped. "Unless you've got any intention of taking this outside, don't go whining about me beating the crap out of you!"

The looks he got were… raging from furious to incredulous, but then the red-head stumbled inside, his wide eyes moving from Potter to the other one as he asked, "What's going on?"

"Get those two punks to shut up before I beat them up," Ichigo glowered. "Some people actually don't mind piece and quiet."

As even more incredulous gazes settled on Ichigo, the teen rolled his eyes, instead focusing on the damned notebook and reading something that had obviously been written short time ago.

_[Kuchiki Rukia]  
BWAHAHAHAHA!_

Ichigo's scowl deepened. Great… she had to put _that._ He could practically see her (along with the rest of the insane idiots) pulling that Kanonji's trick-

It was as if there was this universal rule saying that his every first day had to _suck_.

* * *

This chapter is totally not one of my best. In some places is definitely awkward, but I've rewritten it twice already and if I tried that again, I'd end up messing up some things that I _don't _want to mess up. As for the Sorting... I dunno. I could have put Hinamori in Ravenclaw, but she just didn't seem the type, so I decided for Hufflepuff instead. By running The Sorting Hat Quiz and thinking in 'what would she do?' format. It's not accurate, after all, but I'm trying to keep characters in character _and _original at the same time. The same goes for Ichigo. I could've put him in Slytherin or Hufflepuff, too, but can anyone imagine Ichigo in Slytherin? I can, and it wouldn't be pretty.  
On the other hand, I can't possibly see him in Hufflepuff, even though that he goes through all the shit in odrer to protect people he cares about. It's just... I mean, damn, it would be interesting to put him in Hufflepuff, just to take the poor disregarded house by storm, but I think Hinamori will be more than enough for that. Just wait for it.  
And while Ichigo in Gryffindor is definitely going to cause chaos soon enough, he isn't going to be the only one. I have a feeling that Gryffindor wouldn't be winning the House Cup this year. If the House Cup even survives...

Forgive on this long AN. I've put it at the end of the chapter so those that aren't interested could skip it without much trouble.

So... now I'm going to rant a little bit on the newest Bleach, because I'm an excitable person and I really have to get it out of my system. You can skip through that, but don't forget to check out the trailer for the next chapter down in the bottom!

SPOILER for Bleach 530:

All right. No censure here. Holy shit, what the hell just happened? That with Ryuuken and Masaki I can take. It makes sense, makes the story interesting and _holy shit_ it doesn't make Ichigo and Ishida cousins! Technically. (So yeah, I was a bit afraid KUbo would pull something like that and make it that Ryuuken and Masaki are related... but this makes _so _much more sense... and I like it)  
But what the freaking hell was that thing in the end? I was just staring at the screen for about five minutes, coming up with at least eleven different theories on what _that_ was, before I saw that tiny little notification that there won't be Bleach next week.  
Let's just say my mom threatened she'd disconnect me from the internet immediately if I didn't shut up. I mean, yelling 'holly shit' ten times before she finally got me to shut up isn't very kind to a lady's ears. Not that I stopped there, really. As soon as she was out of my room, I started chanting 'not fair' before I was unfortunately reminded that I had other duties to attend to. In the meantime, my excitement sort of reduced to a mildly calm 'damn, that wasn't fair'. Because it simply wasn't.  
I just hope it wasn't Ichigo in any way, shape or form (okay, disregard that...) because that would be... just _so _wrong. And impossible.  
So damn it, what's the connection?

Anyway, I'm done. I really shouldn't even be doing this.

Now, the trailer:

_"Mr. Kurosaki, if you're finished, you may follow me."_

_The classroom was utterly silent, his quiet, vehement voice stretching through it loud and clear, if a little bit dry. "Are you trying to tell me that once we're out of here, all that's waiting for us is sunshine and daisies?"_


	6. Chapter 5: Unsettling accommodations

Chapter 5: Unsettling accommodations

"Hinamori, Momo."

As she heard her name being called, Momo did as she was instructed. She was a bit nervous, of course. She wanted to know how a simple hat could decide where she belonged, but it wasn't time or place for asking such questions.

She pushed the Hat back the moment it covered her eyes, but what greeted her was most definitely not the sight of Kurosaki-san and the Great Hall.

The pictures were moving to fast for her to discern it all, not to mention that it was something she had never seen before. There were monsters and oddly dressed people around her, with Katanas, slaying them and somehow the woman holding her small hand – small…? Momo didn't remember her hands ever being _small_ – was not paying any attention and she screamed at them to stop before somebody got hurt and she screamed her throat raw and then one of the men turned to her—she knew that face… God forbid, Momo _knew_ that face—_get away from her, kid!_—but she wasn't moving an inch, not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't. _Dear are you_—a scream, followed by a sound of something being sliced off and the girl stared in horror as the head of a monster rolled before her feet. _Run, dammit!_ – a slice and another and another, but then she felt something tickling at her belly and she looked down—only for Momo to open her eyes and find herself in her Inner World.

"Eh? What?" she whispered, absolutely astounded.

Her voice sounded as if she'd been asleep for months and her eyes were tearing up and – _holy shit, _what just happened?

Those memories were definitely not hers. The faces were unfamiliar, but she had to be an idiot not to recognize that head as a head of a Hollow – a Hollow unlike to anything she had ever seen before. But then there was _that_ face and she _knew_ that face. She had seen it somewhere, once… Or at least she thought she did. It was a Shinigami, of course, but she had no idea who in the world that was.

Then it occurred to her that her Inner World was strangely quiet.

Dismissing the notion of what those memories could possibly mean in favor of looking around, Momo fought away the urge to shudder. Something was not right in her own mind and she needed to fix that before even thinking of going back to her Gigai. But first…

"Tobiume?" she called uncertainly.

"Over here," she heard Tobiume say.

Momo nodded, using Shunpo to get closer to her Zanpakuto – who was standing quite a bit further away – and stopped short at the sight.

Tobiume's blade was drawn, pointed at the gray, misty shape which was hovering several inches above the ground, approximately of an average height and weight for a British native. However, the shape was too misty and inconsistent to be sure that it was actually human. However, just as a precaution, she drew her Zanpakuto as well.

"What are you?" she asked sharply.

"Uh-oh… I'm—I'm a pacifist! Will you two beautiful and kind ladies put your weapons away?" the shape responded in a voice that seemed to have a jovial note to it, even despite the obvious fear that was dominating at the moment.

Momo only gripped her sword tighter. The fact that the shape was speaking in English only made her more affronted. Clearly, the thing had not understood what she'd asked and clearly it had something to do with the situation she was in just seconds ago.

"I'm asking, what are you?" she said in English this time, but her voice did not lose on its sharpness.

The shape remained silent for several seconds – Momo started feeling rather self-conscious; it felt as if the thing was _staring _at her – before saying, "Oh, my. This has never happened before."

"What has never happened before?" Tobiume demanded in English as well, keeping her sword only an inch away from the misty shape.

"Well, this!"

Momo wouldn't have any trouble imagining the thing spreading its nonexistent arms, as if to gesture at everything around it. _Perhaps I could refer to it as he? It does sound like it's a male… _She dismissed the thought as soon as she finished it. There was time and place for such things, and right now it was neither.

"Are you going to explain what you are referring to, or should I just pierce you right away?" Tobiume said, impatiently tapping her foot. Sometimes, Momo thought, her Zanpakuto's impatience was not a bad thing.

"Please! Ah, don't—wait! I'm the one that is confused here! I'm the Sorting Hat! The Sorting Hat! I'm supposed to be sorting Momo Hinamori into a Hogwarts House!"

Tobiume's hold on her sword tightened and she moved her blade just enough for an inch of space to turn into a millimeter.

Momo blinked, relaxing significantly as she contemplated the words.

"You are?" she asked.

"Yes, I am. Why, if you could tell your Guardian to pull her weapon away, I could tell you what _I_ know."

Momo clenched her teeth. On one hand, she was very curious to find out what is going on. On the other, a thought of another entity running loose in her Inner World scared the shit out of her. Inwardly, she sighed.

"Tobiume, I'll take it my Gigai is stable?"

"Pretty much, yeah. I think I managed to freeze it a second before I've realized you've been pulled in here. Remember, though. I can't exactly hold this up forever. Couple of minutes at most."

"That's all right," Momo decided. Sharply, she stared at the misty figure. "Sorting Hat-san will be quick, won't it?"

"Eh-eheheheh… I'll try."

"Guess that's all I can ask for." Swallowing, Momo eyed the mist, trying to determine what exactly shape it was. She wasn't having much luck. The darkest shade of it most definitely was human-shaped, but then it was as if there was this lighter shadow of a coat, making it impossible to tell it was human for certain.

"What… are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm Sorting you, Miss Hinamori!" At her look, he quickly amended, "Or at least I should be, anyway. You see, there is a spell on me which enables me to see memories of anyone who puts me on their head – in order to Sort them into the right house, of course. It's a form of a Legilimency spell – but of course, you wouldn't know what Legilimency is… Never mind! Anyway, based on the memories I see, I'm supposed to determine which house to place you in. Are you following so far?"

Momo nodded, her hold on her Zanpakuto quivering. He… he could see her memories? Moreover, he was _supposed_ to do that? Lucky neither she nor her Zanpakuto were too brash and careless so they decided to hear it out until the end, but Momo couldn't help feeling that it was _wrong_. Who ever gave that thing permission to see her memories? After _everything_ that had happened to her? It made her feel exposed. Open. It was scaring her shitless that someone could actually see everything that once happened to her without her consent. And then tell the worst possible people about it.

"Well, that's what I'm supposed to be doing," the Hat continued disdainfully. "It hadn't been working out very well, to be honest. I assume you've seen as much as I have. I don't understand why the movie was cut there, however."

_The movie? _He was referring to her memories as a _movie_? Wait… those memories… were those memories…? Momo shuddered. _They were my memories, weren't they? The memories before I… before I…_ even in her mind, she couldn't voice it.

"Yes, I suppose so," the Hat's voice shook her out of her notion.

Only then did she realize that she had actually said that out loud.

Naturally, it only made her feel worse.

"All right," she said slowly, trying to stay calm. She could feel Tobiume's concerned look as she said that, but she brushed it off. "Then why are you _here_? If you're supposed to be looking in my memories, you shouldn't have ever gotten here. Why are you here? _How?_"

"See, this is something I would like to know as well," the Hat said. "After all, the spell that was put on me only works with people that are actually _alive._ And I'm not silly enough to ask stupid questions. After all, it is more than clear that you do not technically qualify under what a wizard such as Godric Gryffindor would deem alive. Thus, let me ask you, what are _you_?"

"I'm… a Shinigami," Momo said. "Y-you're right. I'm not alive. Not what a human would deem alive, at any rate. I think the term in English is either a Soul Reaper or a Balancer… I'm not sure. Different ones are used in Avalon and Waabanowin… and Werong, too. Werong's still under the Aborigine's control, though, so it's possible they hadn't really translated the terms yet. And now that Waabanowin has been taken over by the Americans, I really can't be sure."

"Err… what?"

"Oh, sorry. Avalon, Waabanowin and Werong are the equivalents of Seireitei… um, or better just say it Soul Society in general. I don't remember Avalon ever being split the way Seireitei and Rukongai are. But other than Soifon-taichō recently, no one from Goteijūsantai went there for at least two centuries, so it's hard to say." Momo smiled nervously as she realized how much she'd gotten off subject. "Anyway, that's… it doesn't matter now. How did you-? How did _I_ get pulled in here? I mean, by all rights, I would have known if it was Tobiume who did it and she did not."

"Perhaps a side-effect?" the Hat suggested after several long, tense seconds of silence. "I hate to say it, but unless you let me in on your memories of the afterlife, I cannot possibly Sort you. If I can even see those memories in the first place."

Tobiume was once again ready to slice the misty shape in two at a slightest suspicious move.

Momo's brow furrowed. "I… I'm sorry. I can't let you do that. I… can't. I've just…I've just managed to pull myself together… I'm really sorry, but I can't let you do that… those memories aren't something I can face right now, all right? Please… just, don't ask that from me. Please."

"I… fine," the Hat said quietly. "I cannot force you to show anything and even if I tried, your Guardian would slice me in half without so much as a blink."

"…A Guardian?" Momo breathed.

"Now you're just underestimating me," Tobiume said before the Hat got a chance to explain. "Whoever said I needed to slice you in half to get rid of you?"

"Well, a man—I mean, a Hat – has got a right to assume, no?"

"No."

"I understand!" There were several seconds of blissful silence, then – "I suppose you aren't going to tell me what happened here."

It was not a question, of course.

Momo sighed, knowing exactly what he meant with that. Everything in her Inner World had been burned to ashes and it had yet to get back to the way it once had been; filled with trees and plants. There were remains of those further away, of course, but that was on quite a distance from the volcano that was the center of her Inner World: perhaps even her heart. And it was once again very close to letting out another steam of lava.

"No," Momo said. Other than Tobiume, no one had the right to know exactly how much Aizen's betrayal had affected her. "No, I'm not going to tell you."

There she was, still picking up the pieces, so many months after everything was over.

"I… see. Well, I guess I can only draw a conclusion from what I've seen so far. So, what do you think about Hufflepuff?"

"Eh?"

"Hufflepuff? Would you mind it if I put you in there? It certainly seems like a fitting place for you, based on what I've seen so far. You would do well there."

Momo frowned a little. "Well, I was hoping to be in the same house with Kurosaki-san, for the sake of simplicity. But seeing as I'm not sure where he'll end up – Tobiume has her dibs on Gryffindor and I think I just may lose this bet, so – okay. Hufflepuff will be all right."

Momo thought she was imagining the nod as the misty shape dissolved.

"You should go," Tobiume told her. "I can't keep holding it for much longer. I've speeded the time in here as much as I could already."

Momo nodded, closing her eyes. "All right. Hey, Tobiume?"

Her Zanpakuto turned to her. "Yes?"

"Thanks."

Momo opened her eyes to look right at Kurosaki-san, who looked as if he'd seen better days. She smiled a little, to reassure him that Sorting was not as scary as he probably thought it was, and nodded to herself as she stood up, leaving the Hat behind.

Maybe, if she looked convincing enough, she'd manage to convince herself of it as well.

With a smile, she headed over towards the currently applauding group, joining a few girls that were waving at her. She couldn't let them see her heart was once again in turmoil. She couldn't let them get even a single idea that something in her life (or afterlife, at any rate), had gone seriously wrong.

Not even for a second.

* * *

Momo listened through Professor Umbridge's speech keenly, occasionally looking over at Kurosaki-san and Professor McGonagall. Kurosaki-san's constant scowl and the way how he continuously tried to ignore the speech had actually been rather amusing, especially when he had slammed his hand to his forehead. Professor McGonagall's look of distaste had amused her just as much, if not even more. Clearly, she shared Momo's opinion that Professor Umbridge's cardigan was just _not_ fashionable.

It was all she could do: focus on others' actions, in order to stop thinking about those memories she'd seen. Of course, whenever she'd drifted off even a little, Susan Bones would ask if she was all right so Momo did her best to joke around with them as if everything was fine.

When even that sort of distraction became inefficient, Momo decided that some evaluation of her target was in order.

She had been shocked – a severe understatement – when she saw who the rumored Albus Dumbledore was. For a second, she had just stared blankly, seeing Aizen-tai—no, Aizen, in his place and her own in Professor McGonagall's, before she shook her head and forced herself not to think about it in such a way.

Still, the likeness had scared the devil out of her.

It was definitely not based on looks, of course. If anything, Dumbledore reminded her of Yamamoto-Sōtaichō and other professors didn't really strike her as looking familiar, but in a deeper sense… the one personality-wise, it was unnerving.

Kurosaki-san and Yoruichi-san were probably the only anchors to her sanity at the moment, so she turned to look at Kurosaki-san, and it helped her. The constant scowl on his face often made her think how he hated doing what he did and hated being where he was, but the key point was to know that it wasn't so. Besides, it was him who stopped Aizen. Maybe he could stop her from going insane, too.

Kurosaki-san was… all right. She had concluded that, long before this mission had even started.

What made her uneasy about him was simply that: he helped imprison Aizen – but she had also long since decided to move forward and if that meant spending a year with Kurosaki-san in another dimension and across half the world, and if possible helping him get stronger, then so be it. Otherwise, she never would be able to keep her promise to Toshiro-kun and Kira-kun, but most importantly, herself.

That's why she forced her mind to get back on track.

Dumbledore seemed to care a lot about his students and – while she had failed in the past – Momo had always been a good judge of character. She was more than certain that his care was genuine and not faked or forced in any way, but she could hardly focus on that only. Still, so far, her impression of him was positive.

Or at least it would have been had it not been for the 'I'm blackmailing you now' attitude he was exploiting, and the fact that Soifon-taichō suffered for it the most. Yamamoto-Sōtaichō refused to let her resign as a Captain of the Second division only because the Vizards refused the offer to take over vacant captain spots and there were still three divisions lacking Captains. The last thing Gotei Thirteen needed was another vacant Captain seat.

Still, they also had to take in consideration – as Soifon-taichō had advised – that it was perhaps not Dumbledore who had held her captured, but someone else pretending to be him. It was possible and plausible, Momo admitted, as the Shinigami had no way of recognizing anything at all regarding that man. Even what little they knew of his Reiatsu, what with Momo being able to sense it now (it was at about her level, give or take), was not enough of a confirmation.

But to think that a human could be so powerful without any proper training at all was a terrifying possibility. Hell, there were still petitions going on, up in the Central Forty-Six Chambers for Vizards, Kurosaki-san and his friends to be stripped of their lives (or just powers, in the case of the latter). Momo shuddered to think what would happen if that actually managed to go through sometime in the future.

Another war on the horizon would be the _least_ of their problems, what with half the Seireitei supporting Kurosaki-san, anyway.

In the meantime, what Remus-san had told them over their short stay with him – Momo had decided to believe it. To believe him. There was nothing in his words other than truth and caution – but that still didn't give them the whole story. Although, more and more with each passing second, Professor Umbridge was confirming it and Momo knew better than to let any of her words this evening be forgotten.

Professor McGonagall was a bit easier to analyze. She was stern, rather unfriendly towards their kind for she obviously knew who and what they—no, _she_ was – and it was evident that she was afraid of them. _All the more reason to worry_, Momo thought as she rested her arms on the table and laid her head on them.

"Is something the matter, Momo?" Susan Bones asked her.

"No, of course not," Momo said quickly. "I'm just getting sleepy from this whole speech, that's all."

"I know. It's so tedious. I'm a bit perturbed, though. Who would ever think the Ministry would get involved with Hogwarts?" Susan seemed more curious than perturbed, Momo noticed.

She didn't hold it against her, as she was very curious about the whole affair herself.

_At least Susan is nice. She isn't overly curious and she kept others away from me when they started asking too many questions, too soon, too fast-paced for me to follow._

Hannah was nice as well, but Momo liked Susan more. As for the others, so far Ernie and Justin were proving to be the most interesting of the group – Ernie with his good knowledge of politics and Justin with his laid-back attitude on the whole thing.

"Be careful when entering the common room," Hannah warned Momo as they approached the basement that was apparently the common room, sometime later. "You have to tap the right barrels at the right tunes otherwise you'll be dosed in vinegar and blocked from entering."

"Oh… all right." _I guess that means I shouldn't walk around too much on my own,_ Momo thought. She couldn't help but wonder where Yoruichi-san had gone, but those notions drifted from her mind the moment they entered the basement.

The Hufflepuff common room, to Momo's delight, was round, earthy and had a rather low ceiling, but otherwise felt cozily warm and comfortable. The windows had view of rippling grass and only one tiny tidbit of the dark sky outside was visible through them. There were many plants growing around and Momo realized she was going to like it there. Actually, she was going to like it there really, _really_ much.

"Come on, our dorm is this way," Susan told to her with a grin.

Momo nodded and followed her through the dark, but warm, passages until Susan pointed at the door. "This is ours," she said. "Bet you that Hannah and the others are going to be here soon enough, if they already aren't."

Hannah had gone ahead of them, when Momo and Susan had paused to say hi to Hermione. She had mentioned something about 'water' and just disappeared, so Momo and Susan decided not to wait for her.

Turned out she was in the dorm when the two walked in.

Momo's first impression of the dorm was that she was never ever going to get cold inside. The copper lamps illuminated the dorm with the warm light and each of the four-poster beds were covered in warm looking patchwork quilts. Copper bed-warmers hung next to each bed and Momo wondered if she was ever going to use it. She hoped not, because she didn't enjoy being cold, but one never knew.

Two girls, who had already been inside with Hannah when Hinamori and Susan walked in, looked up.

"Oh, hello," the first – one with shoulder-length dark hair and bangs, friendly brown eyes and an exceedingly small nose – said.

"I never realized—" the other, taller girl with bangs, long curly hair and very fair skin started, but then broke off, "Oh, never mind. I'm Megan Jones. Welcome to Hufflepuff."

"And I'm Leanne Winters."

Momo smiled. "It's very nice to meet you. I'm Momo Hinamori."

"We know," the two said. There was only amusement in their voices, so Momo said nothing.

"Hey, has anyone seen Eloise yet?" asked Leanne.

"Nope. I'm actually pretty certain she was still at the Great Hall when we left," Hannah said.

"Oh, right."

"I'm guessing that's your cat, right?" Susan said jovially.

Momo turned in direction Susan was pointing, only to see Yoruichi-the-cat looking inquiringly at her, and turned back to Susan with a grin. "Yep, that's Yoruichi-san."

"What a name. Does it have a meaning?" asked Leanne.

"It can be translated to 'night one', I guess," said Momo pensively as she strode over to the woman-turned-cat and started stroking her behind the ears. "It actually fits her really well. Yoruichi-san likes going out at night very much. You shouldn't be surprised if you see her doing something unusual, either."

The cat purred.

Momo got an impression that the girls seemed rather surprised at first, but Megan broke it off, approaching to rub her ears. "She's adorable," she said. "I've always liked cats. Wait, it is a she, isn't it?"

"Ah, yes. I just said that."

Susan laughed. "My pet dog at home is a lot like that as well. I wonder if they'd ever get along."

Momo chuckled at the thought.

She hadn't lingered awake for long that evening, saying good night to the girls shortly after she was introduced to them all and falling asleep quickly.

Her dreams that night were haunted by Ichimaru Gin and his manic grin, much to her terror, but other than the fact that it scared her, Momo couldn't really remember anything else about it. She found herself awake in the middle of the night, drenched in cold sweat and breathing raggedly. Something was there, she realized, and nearly screamed when saw Yoruichi's golden eyes staring at her.

"Oi, Hinamori."

"H-hai?"

"Are you all right?"

"I… I think so."

"Can you get back to sleep before you wake the rest of the dorm?"

She smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. "Yeah. I'm… I'll be okay."

Yoruichi nodded, jumping into a dark shadow by her bed. "Don't forget," she said as Hinamori turned on her side, "you're not alone in here."

Momo nodded briefly. "Thank you, Yoruichi-san." Really, she _was_ grateful that Yoruichi offered to stay with her instead of Kurosaki-san as it was originally intended. New surroundings had always had an odd impact on her and having a familiar presence around… it was reassuring. In a way.

Not to mention that those memories still seemed to be having an impact on her.

"Good night, Yoruichi-san."

* * *

Waking up in the morning, in the comfortable and warm bed, was a difficult affair, Ichigo learned, especially when there was no maniac of a father to try and kick you in the face an hour too early. Still, he found himself awake before the rest of his 'housemates' and so he used the chance to get a quick shower.

"Oh, hey, you're awake…"

Ichigo, who had by then been in the process of drying his hair, turned to see the only student whose name he hadn't yet learned. He was yawning, looking sleepily towards Ichigo.

"Ah, sorry if I woke you up," Ichigo said. His voice didn't exactly sound apologetic, but if the other one noticed it, he said nothing.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Most of the time I wake up before others," he said. "By the way, I don't think I've introduced myself yet… um… I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

Neville nodded. "Are you going to the Great Hall? For breakfast? I mean, I could show you the way… if you need…"

Ichigo looked up at him, a little bit surprised at the sudden offer. Not that he was going to look gift-horse in the mouth. He had a feeling that if he were to get out of the common room, he'd get lost in seconds.

"Sure," he said. "Thanks."

"It's nothing, really."

They went downstairs to the Great Hall soon after, Ichigo trying hard to remember the path they were taking, but it seemed futile. The whole layout seemed to be a mass of hallways and staircases that apparently liked changing directions and Ichigo made a mental note to _not_ go anywhere alone. When they arrived downstairs, it turned out they were the only Gryffindors among the early risers.

If several, probably first years, were excused, of course.

Ichigo ate quickly, having every intention to learn how to get to the Gryffindor tower without actually following anyone before the classes actually started, but, unfortunately, that plan got busted early on.

"Mr. Kurosaki, if you're finished, you may follow me."

McGonagall had intercepted him as soon as he stood up and Ichigo, having nowhere else to go, followed her. She led him through another set of confusing corridors and into an office where, interestingly enough, sat another one of (Ichigo assumed) teachers and bleary-eyed Hinamori.

"Ah, Professor McGonagall, Kurosaki-san…" Hinamori said.

"Stay seated, Miss Hinamori," said McGonagall as she joined the other woman. "Now, there is something we must discuss. Miss Hinamori, Mr. Kurosaki, this is Herbology professor and the head of Hufflepuff house, Pomona Sprout. I am the Transfiguration professor and the head of Gryffindor house, thus it is us who must discuss this with you."

"First of all," Sprout said, before either of the two got a chance to open their mouth, "we have to talk about your timetable. You are both going to attend the standard and obligatory course of lessons including Transfiguration, History of Magic, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms and Astronomy with the rest of the fifth year students. However, there is another set of courses, from which you must choose at least two. Those include Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, among others."

Hinamori opened her mouth to speak, but McGonagall cut her short.

"Don't worry about the books, Miss Hinamori. I am certain that whichever of the subjects you choose, the professors will have a spare one to give you."

Hinamori promptly closed them.

"Now, those classes are corresponding with the timetable, but some of them – take Divination and Ancient Runes for example – do have tendency to be held at the same time. Of course, depending on which courses you choose, this may not even be of importance to you," Sprout was saying.

"During this first week you can attend any of these lessons," said McGonagall, "but Friday evening last you must tell your head of house which classes you chose. Is that clear?"

Ichigo and Hinamori exchanged a look.

"Yes."

"Good. Now, the second thing we wanted to discuss is your grades and the subjects you specialize at," McGonagall said.

Ichigo stiffened. They couldn't have noticed some inconsistencies, could they? Hinamori may be under impression that McGonagall knew about them, but Ichigo was pretty sure that even if she did, the Sprout woman did not. Besides, it was Urahara who was putting up the papers, no? He would never put it past him to mess up something so completely simple.

Sprout lifted a file from the desk. Ichigo could see Hinamori's name written in large Kanji, with the small English letters for her name written below.

"Here it says you're a master of Charms and Kido," Sprout said to Hinamori, her brow quirking as she said the other, to her unfamiliar word. "See, what I wanted to disclose is what Kido means, to make sure if we can enable you to do it here. It's listed as an extracurricular activity, but apparently, whoever was putting up this file forgot to give a normal translation."

Ichigo was sure he wasn't imagining the obvious dissatisfaction he was hearing.

"Oh… Kido… well, that doesn't really _have_ a good translation," Hinamori said with an awkward smile. "The closest would probably be 'Demon Arts' or 'Spirit Arts', but the name doesn't convey much. It's actually… how should I put this? Ah, it's a type of a wandless magic, mostly used in self-defense. I could offer a demonstration, if it's necessary."

"That's all right," Sprout said with a nod, but a twitch went over McGonagall's face.

"And Hakuda?" McGonagall asked. "It says Mr. Kurosaki here is quite proficient, and his grade in it is better than even Transfiguration, which so far seems to exceed expectations."

Ichigo stared, almost going as far as asking what she was talking about, but then it occurred to him. "A-ah… Hand-to-hand combat," he managed. "Mostly based on martial arts stances and stuff like that."

"I see." McGonagall nodded thoughtfully. "I don't think we can enable those activities here, yet."

"Oh, that's all right," Hinamori said. "We weren't expecting anything of the sort, either."

"I… see. Well, that would be it. You may go. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask."

The two accepted their timetables, shaking their heads in negative when asked if there were any questions. The first chance they got, they left McGonagall's office.

"What's your first period?" asked Hinamori when they got back into the Great Hall.

"History of Magic," Ichigo said with a frown as he read through his schedule.

"Hm… I have Charms… Hey, Kurosaki-san?"

"Eh?" He looked at her briefly.

"I… never mind. It doesn't matter right now." She smiled. "Are we going to share any classes at all?"

Ichigo shrugged. "I've no idea."

Hinamori took his timetable, reading through it. "Hm… Herbology only," she said. "Tomorrow," she added as an afterthought. "Oh well, see you later." And with that she skipped away.

Ichigo shook his head, looking down at his timetable. So far, Monday didn't look very thrilling.

* * *

"Can this ever get more boring than it already is?" Ichigo muttered in his chin, willing himself not to fall asleep. That task, unfortunately, was becoming more difficult with each passing second as he was sleepy, and while he had actually gotten enough sleep, at the moment he felt as if that wasn't even nearly enough.

Not one student in their year, aside from the bushy haired girl, Hermione or something, was paying attention to the lesson. Most of the students were drifting off. Potter and the redhead were playing some games. Parvati and the flower-girl were chatting. Dean and Seamus were yawning. Neville was dozing off. Occasionally, Parvati would turn to him – she was sitting right in front of him – and say something. Like right now.

"Other than using this class to chat, I don't see any other use in it," she said honestly, smiling all the while.

"Of course there is use in this. The Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures office can't possibly work without this knowledge," Hermione hissed at the comment, just after finishing growling at Potter and his friend for not paying attention.

"Good thing I was never planning to join, then," muttered Ichigo dejectedly.

"Well then it will be your problem if you fail on the History of Magic OWL," she said, then looked at him speculatively. "You are taking the OWLs, are you not?"

Ichigo blinked. "The what?"

"The OWLs; the Ordinary Wizarding Level examination, taking place at the end of the fifth year. Don't tell me you're not going to attend them."

"Oh… yeah… I _am_ going to do those," Ichigo said lazily, remembering hazily how Urahara had mentioned some examinations. About five times. "I wouldn't mind failing this class right now, though. Hey, is there anyway I can drop it?"

"It's obligatory!"

"Didn't think so," Ichigo muttered in his chin.

"It's important!" Hermione protested.

By now, even Potter and his friend were listening to their conversation. Ichigo decided he didn't particularly care.

"I don't see my life depending on it," he said. Not that he saw his life depending on school in general. After everything that had happened ever since Rukia just elegantly crashed into his life, school became the least of his worries. Unfortunately, once he turned back into a normal human, he still continued exploiting that attitude – up to a point. His grades had dropped dramatically and most of the time he was in class, he was just drifting off. Not to say he wasn't among the first fifty students, but from twenty-one falling to forty nine wasn't exactly a marvelous result.

Not to mention that then he'd had _more_ time to study than what he'd had when he first got involved with the Shinigami business.

"Your education is depending on it! I heard that Japanese are a nation that takes studies and education seriously," Hermione huffed, interrupting his train of thought.

"Well yeah, but that's limited to the knowledge that we'll actually need in life. More than half of this is actually useless."

"No, it is not," Hermione insisted. "At any point in life you might need something you know you did back at school and you can't remember simply because you didn't _pay attention_."

"Sorry. I still think this crap is useless," Ichigo said. _Especially to me._

"Yes. Actually practicing magic, no matter how silly, comes more in handy than this," added Parvati, not particularly helpfully.

Hermione huffed and turned away from them, back to taking notes.

The redhead was staring at them in awe. "Wow. I've never seen her back off like that," he mouthed to Ichigo.

Ichigo rolled his eyes.

Instead of listening to the rest of the lesson, which earned him a rather mean glare from the prefect girl, Ichigo had taken out 'the secret notebook' and taken to flipping pages. He wasn't expecting anything, however, but it had been glowing when he woke up and it was still warm, so he had just pushed it in his schoolbag and had opted to look at it later. Now was a good time as any.

On one of the pages, there was a message written, but Ichigo then saw that it was definitely not the page fourteen. He wasn't sure, because he was lazy to count, but it was probably either fifteen or seventeen. He blinked at the message.

_[Inoue, Orihime]  
HI, KUROSAKI KUN! How's Hogwarts? Is it interesting? Do they have yummy food there? Oh, I wish I could join, too! By the way, Tatsuki-chan says hi!_

…What with everything else besides the name being written in rather messy English, Ichigo tried his best to ignore it.

Ichigo wasn't sure whether to reply right away or not. He didn't want to risk it and get his notebook taken away, but he was also bored to hell.

He ended up scribing a _'Yo'_ a short description of Hogwarts being massive, food being edible and everything else confusing, and then he waited for a response. As his writing never disappeared, Ichigo assumed that she probably wasn't anywhere near the notebook. He sighed. _All right. No distraction this time._

The rest of the class he spent… well, napping. The end of it simply couldn't come fast enough.

Parvati shook him awake (not that he really fell asleep) when the lesson ended and they followed the other Gryffindors towards the Potions classroom that turned out to be in the damp dungeons.

_At least here,_ Ichigo thought, remembering the Potions material of the third year – which was the only material that Lupin had managed to get them for the subject, _I'll have something to do._

Potions were not something he thought he would do well at. It required attention, following instructions and a great timing – things that Ichigo rarely had going for him. Well, other than timing, occasionally. They didn't require wand (or magic) use, and that's exactly what he needed the most. In other words, Potions, much like History of Magic, felt as if he was wasting time.

He'd ended up sitting next to the redhead – Ron – and his friend – namely, Potter, while Hermione sat in front of them with Neville. They hadn't talked much at all before the start of the lesson. Hermione was still obviously dissatisfied with the way he was thinking of History of Magic for Ichigo to even remotely consider asking her anything. And on the other hand, Ron and Potter were busy talking among themselves.

Then the professor with greasy hair, whose name Ichigo had yet to hear, after a long talk about OWLs, told them their assignment.

"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing."

Ichigo sighed, preparing his cauldron. Good grades were the only thing not necessary in this school, which struck him as ironic because in a way, he did want to do his best. Well, as long as it got his powers back, that is.

"The ingredients and method—" Greasy-head flicked his wand "—are on the blackboard."

They appeared there.

Ichigo mentally snorted. _Showoff. _

"You will find everything you need—" Greasy-head flicked his wand again "—in the store cupboard." The door of the said cupboard sprang open. "You have an hour and a half. Start."

It turned out that brewing Potions was actually much easier than it seemed at first, Ichigo realized throughout the class. The vapors rising from other's cauldrons obscured the sight of the blackboard soon enough and he was glad that he had remembered to copy down the instructions before he had started (Damn quills were so hard to use. He'd wondered how he'd ended up with one in the first place.).

The most difficult part of brewing potions, he learned, was actually waiting for the potion to turn the right color and numbering how many times exactly he had stirred it, before adding the next ingredient. It kept him from getting sleepy, though, and by the time that Greasy-head – he later learned the name was Snape – had told them that there should be silver vapor rising from their potion, Ichigo was frowning at the silvery substance in his cauldron, but there was no vapor rising up from it.

It was a bit lighter than what it should have been, he realized when he saw Hermione's, but he didn't pay it much heed. He noticed, though, that Snape didn't comment on her potion at all, while he pounced on Potter about not following instructions. At the other, Slytherin part of the classroom, Ichigo noticed that only one student had managed to get his potion to be silvery but even that wasn't the way it was _supposed_ to be.

"How did you do it?" asked Ron, his potion occasionally spitting green sparks and smelling awfully like bad eggs.

"Followed the instructions, duh," Ichigo muttered quietly.

Snape then got to him and glared at Ichigo's potion. "This," he informed him, "is exactly what I have been warning you about."

That pretty much caught the attention of most of the class that was able to hear him. In other words: several Gryffindors'.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow prominently, not exactly sure what to say.

"Kurosaki, here you have a potion that could with only several drops put a person in a relatively irreversible sleep."

"Guess that rules out feeding Yoruichi on it," Ichigo mumbled in his chin. He was surprised as to how little he cared about it, whether his potion was good or not.

"What did you say?"

"Uh… Nothing…"

"I'll just assume that you have read through the instructions."

Ichigo's scowl became a bit deeper. "I have."

Snape glared. Ichigo glared back.

"Read the third line, Kurosaki."

Ichigo blinked, then turned to his notes. "Err – add powdered moonstone, stir three times counter-clockwise, simmer seven minutes then add three drops of hellebore syrup."

"Wrong, Kurosaki. Now instead of looking down on your own faulty notes, read through the third line and tell me what you did wrong."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at the board that he could hardly see, then palmed his head. "Two drops of syrup. Damn."

"Five points from Gryffindor for swearing, Kurosaki, and try not to let that happen again."

Ichigo snorted.

"And I want you to do the essay on the syrup of hellebore's properties and its purpose while brewing the Draught of Peace. Twelve inches due Thursday," said Snape. "As for the rest of you, twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in on Thursday. Those of you, who have managed to read the instructions, fill one flagon with your potion, label it clearly with your name and bring it up to my desk for my testing."

Ichigo's scowl deepened, knowing that, technically, he didn't have to hand in his potion, but he did so anyway. A part of him wondered if Snape perhaps had someone who he wanted to put in irreversible sleep.

When Ichigo got back to the desk, there was only Potter there, glaring at his desk as if he wanted to burn a few holes in it.

He got a fleeting impression that maybe he should have said something, but he had neither the will nor patience to be at the receiving end of an angry teen's glare for the day… because that one just may end up with a fist fight.

It was much later that day that it occurred to him that Snape hadn't messed up the pronunciation of his name.

* * *

Harry's day hadn't been going remarkably well. Without waiting for Ron and Hermione, he left the dungeons as the bell rang. By the time they had arrived at the Great Hall, he had already started his lunch, ignoring pretty much everything.

"That was really unfair," said Hermione consolingly, sitting down on his other side and helping herself to shepherd's pie. "Your potion wasn't nearly as bad as Goyle's. When he put it in his flagon, the whole thing shattered and set his robes on fire."

"Yeah, well," said Harry, glowering at his plate, "since when has Snape ever been fair to me?"

Neither of his friends answered and frankly, what was there to say?

"Were you perhaps in class with Kurosaki-san just now?"

The question came from the short Japanese girl that had been sorted at Hufflepuff the previous evening, and she was looking at them with what Harry could have deemed a worried look.

Harry looked around, expecting to see the taller student with bright orange hair, but clearly, Ichigo Kurosaki hadn't arrived yet. Which puzzled him since the transfer left the dungeons before Harry had.

"Yeah," Ron said to her. "Dunno where he's at now, though."

Momo – was that her name? – nodded. "Ah, that is sort of why I was asking. You don't think he's gotten lost, do you?"

"Fat chance for that with Parvati hanging on his every word," Ron pointed out.

Harry wanted to ask what that was all about, but then he saw it himself. Ichigo just entered the Great Hall, scowling at something profusely, with Parvati only a step behind, talking about something with much enthusiasm. The transfer was either pretending not to notice – or was completely oblivious of – her increase of energy around him, as he was calmly approaching the group.

"Yo, Hinamori," he said shortly. He then looked briefly at the group, nodding in acknowledgment, before turning back to her. "Something up?"

"Eh? No! No, of course not!" she blurted out quickly, shaking her head. "Actually, I just wanted to ask which of the additional lessons you're going to take. I'm really clueless on it."

Ichigo calmly sat at the table and shrugged. "No idea yet," he said honestly.

"Divination?" Parvati offered.

Harry noticed the look of distaste crossing over Ichigo's face as she said it, but he refrained from telling her anything, instead looking at the trio. "What's your next class?"

"Divination," Ron said. "You haven't selected your classes yet?"

"No," Momo admitted. "Professor McGonagall said we had until the end of this week to do so."

"Oh!" Hermione beamed. Harry found that to be not odd at all as he tried not to think of it too much. She'd perk up at any mentions of education, after all. "Well, I am attending Ancient Runes now. It is really an impressive course."

"Sounds better than future-telling at any hand," Ichigo muttered off-handily. "Oi, Hinamori, do we have to attend _every_ one of those classes before we decide?"

"Ano… I hope _not_," she admitted. "Personally, I'm not very interested in Care of Magical Creatures."

Harry gripped his fork tighter.

"Well you could always try Ancient Runes and Arithmancy," said Hermione. Under Harry's glare, she begrudgingly added, "Care of Magical Creatures is fascinating as well. I don't understand why you wouldn't like it."

"Any of those involve actually using magic?" asked Ichigo in between the bites of his shepherd's pie. Harry noticed he didn't look very thrilled with the taste, but he ate on anyway.

"Arithmancy does, sometimes. And occasionally Ancient Runes find it necessary for translating some old texts, but neither do it very much," said Hermione.

"Great. Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, then," Ichigo said. "Hinamori?"

"I've got my eyes set on Ancient Runes as well, but I think I'll take Care of Magical Creatures instead of Arithmancy... or perhaps Muggle Studies," Momo said with a smile. "Thank you, Hermione-chan, Potter-kun, Weasley-kun. See you later, Kurosaki-san!" And she skipped away to meet with Susan Bones.

Harry found himself wondering if he was famous all the way to Japan, when Ron asked, "What does kun mean?"

"It is an honorific," Hermione explained, much to Harry's and Ichigo's surprise as they both looked up at her. She then looked at Ichigo with uncertainty. "Isn't it?"

"Eh? Yeah, it's an honorific. Used often when people don't know each other too well," he explained.

"It is used most of the time in a conversation with males, while chan is often referred to females," said Hermione. "I understand that san is actually a unisex honorific. And the use of either given or family name indicates closeness between the conversationalists."

"Something like that," Ichigo said tentatively. He didn't seem to be in the mood to get into any deeper explanations, though.

"How do you know all that?" Ron said to Hermione, his voice slightly awed.

Hermione's cheeks reddened a bit. "I read," she muttered. "I got really curious when professor Lupin mentioned that we'll be having transfers this year."

Harry noticed that by then, neither Ron nor Ichigo were listening to her. Ichigo was scowling down at his meal and Ron's eyes were drifting somewhere towards the Hufflepuff table. He followed the trajectory and soon spotted Momo, standing in between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw table with Susan, talking to none other than Lisa Turpin, a fifth year Ravenclaw, and Cho. He could only see a small part of her face, but he could tell she was smiling. Beside her, both Momo and Lisa wore worried expressions, until the group got separated and Cho exited the Great Hall and the other three girls returned to their respective tables.

Harry looked down at his meal and sighed. Would he ever get a chance to talk to Cho _without_ embarrassing himself at the process? That accident with Neville's plant was... horrendous.

That, and many other unanswered questions loomed inside his head as he and Ron waved away Hermione and Ichigo who headed for the Ancient Runes. He walked past Sir Cardigan's portrait with Ron in silence, without any intention of breaking it. Ron, however, seemed to think in different directions.

"Don't you think she's pretty?"

"Who?" Harry asked neutrally, though he had a pretty good idea who Ron was talking about.

"_Her_!" said Ron. "I mean, her name is weird, but… she's pretty."

Well, that just made it clear.

Harry shrugged noncommittally. "Dunno. I guess."

They were among the last ones to arrive before Trelawney, and Harry for a brief moment looked at Parvati who looked especially crestfallen for some reason, before she turned to whisper something to Lavender.

As Trelawney greeted them and began teaching, he noticed that Ichigo was serious when he opted not to take the class and he couldn't possibly say he blamed him. Listening to Trelawney going on and on about the importance of OWLs helped Harry realize that he had no slightest intention of actually continuing with this class. Momo and Ichigo were lucky if they'd opted for other ones.

They only had a short time after Trelawney had told them to keep a dream diary for a month to get downstairs for Defence Against the Dark Arts and by the time they arrived in front of the classroom, Hermione and Ichigo were already there and she was explaining him something regarding a rune that Harry didn't find particularly interesting.

"Shouldn't we enter?" he asked the two.

"Oh, you're right, we should," said Hermione. "I'll explain you all the other meanings later," she told Ichigo and they headed inside.

When they all entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom they found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teachers desk, wearing the fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and the black velvet bow on top of her head. Harry was reminded forcibly of a large fly perched unwisely on top of an even larger toad.

He shook his head to get rid of the image and sat somewhere in the middle of the classroom, next to Hermione.

The class remained quiet even after they had all entered the room and took their seats; Professor Umbridge was, as yet, an unknown quantity and nobody knew how strict a disciplinarian she was likely to be.

"Well, good afternoon!" she said, when finally the whole class had settled down.

There were several grumbled responses, though it clearly couldn't be deciphered who it was.

"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge'. One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her. At least most of them did. Harry noticed how Hermione's eyes narrowed a fraction and, the seat in front of her, Kurosaki, didn't even bother pretending to do so.

"Wands away and quills out, please."

Many of the class exchanged gloomy looks; that wasn't exactly how interesting lessons ought to begin. Ichigo especially looked foul. Then Harry saw Parvati sitting at the only available seat by him and suddenly the foul look made him think it wasn't only Umbridge who was getting on his nerves.

Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once.

_Defence Against the Dark Arts__  
__A Return to Basic Principles_

_That_, Harry concluded, _can't possibly be interesting._

The space beneath the headline was soon taken by apparently another boring thing.

_Course Aims:  
1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.  
2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.  
3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use._

Harry tentatively and hesitantly moved to copy down the course aims, as did the rest of the students. When everyone had copied down Professor Umbridge's three course aims, she asked, "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

There was a dull murmur of assent throughout the class.

"I think we'll try that again," said Umbridge. "When I ask you a question, I should like you to reply, 'Yes, Professor Umbridge', or 'No, Professor Umbridge'. So: has everyone got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

"Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang through the room. Harry noticed that this time, Kurosaki was not the only one to stay quiet and several others had actually joined him, including Hermione, to Harry's astonishment.

In fact, while most of the class bent down to read the chapter, Harry saw that she was sitting up straight without even opening her copy of Defensive Magical Theory, her hand high in the air.

He looked at her enquiringly, but she merely shook her head slightly to indicate that she was not about to answer any questions, and continued to stare at Professor Umbridge, who was looking just as resolutely in another direction.

After several more minutes had passed, however, Harry was not the only one watching Hermione. Quite a number of students joined, including Ichigo who was actually sitting in front of her, so that ought to have drawn Umbridge's attention at some point.

When more than half the class were staring at Hermione rather than at their books, Umbridge seemed to have decided that she could ignore the situation no longer.

"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Hermione, as though she had only just noticed her.

"Not about the chapter, no," said Hermione.

"Well, we're reading just now," said Professor Umbridge, despite the fact that no single student in the room was reading. "If you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."

"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione bluntly.

"And your name is?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully."

"Well, I don't. There's nothing written up there about _using_ defensive spells."

* * *

Ichigo looked up at the course aims, reading through them word-to-word, unlike what he'd done when Umbridge had first told them to copy them, now fully alert. As he half-expected, Hermione was right.

Umbridge's reply only confirmed it.

"Using defensive spells? Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"

That… was just ridiculous.

"We're not going to use magic?"

It was Ron asking this time, his voice betraying every last inkling of incredulousness that Ichigo was feeling at the moment. Based on what little he'd learned of the subject so far, Defence was not, in any way, shape or form, purely a theoretical subject.

"Yes, Miss Granger? You wanted to ask something else?"

Ichigo blinked to find Hermione's hand up in the air again, her question to the point.

"Yes. Surely the whole point of Defence Against the Dark Arts is to practise defensive spells?"

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?"

"No, but—"

"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new programme of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way—"

"What use is that? If we're going to be attacked, it won't be in a—" Potter piped up immediately.

"Hand, Mr. Potter!" But even as he raised it, she turned away to focus on Dean instead.

"And your name is?"

"Dean Thomas."

"Well, Mr. Thomas?"

"Well, it's like Harry said, isn't it? If we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk free."

"I repeat; do you expect to be attacked during my classes?"

"No, but—"

"I do not wish to criticise the way things have been run in this school," Umbridge said, smiling unconvincingly, "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed-not to mention, extremely dangerous half-breeds."

"If you mean Professor Lupin, he was the best we ever—"

"Hand, Mr. Thomas!"

It was getting beyond the point of ridiculous, Ichigo realized. Instead of answering the real question, she was cutting it in pieces, taking those parts that she could, turning them against the students, effectively leading away from the subject. It was distracting. It was clever. It was downright annoying.

They had to do something.

"As I was saying-you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day—"

"No we haven't, we just—"

"Your hand is not up, Miss Granger! It is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them on you."

They had to do something. Anything.

"Well, he turned out to be a maniac, didn't he? Mind you, we still learned loads," Dean said loudly.

"Your hand is not up, Mr. Thomas! Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about." In favor of ignoring any other protest Dean may have, Umbridge turned to Parvati. "And your name is?"

"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the counter-curses and things?"

"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions."

This wasn't going anywhere _at all_.

"Without ever practising them beforehand? Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?" Parvati asked incredulously.

"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough—"

"Excuse me, but do you think we're all freaking _prodigies_ around here?"

Suddenly, Ichigo could feel every single eye in the classroom on him and it took him a bit over a second to realize that he was actually standing on his feet, rather than sitting down. The words had escaped him before he had a single clue what he was doing, and standing up to make a point was the last thing he would ever be intending to do in such case.

"Your hand is not up, Mr. Kurosaki," Umbridge coaxed.

Still, it's not like he _wanted_ to ignore this the whole time.

"Wari ne. I'm not exactly accustomed to British ways yet," Ichigo shot back automatically, not caring at all if she'd see through the lie. "So, professor, do you think we're all prodigies here or something? Because I'm pretty sure not a single person in here is capable of getting a spell right on their first attempt."

"Mr. Kurosaki, you will not speak in such in way in this classroom," Umbridge instructed.

Ichigo refrained from making his scowl more evident. As it was, he had just gotten himself in enough trouble to last for a month. Not that he really cared, but there was no particular use in making it worse. On the other hand, that woman was just asking to be insulted with that attitude of hers. Again, she was changing the subject without giving a straight answer, probably because she had none.

"I'm sorry," Ichigo said, with much effort keeping his voice from going into not-sorry-at-all territory too much. The rational part of his mind told him to stay quiet, keep calm and not do something he'd later regret.

Unfortunately, that was a part of him that Ichigo didn't remember listening very often. "Let me rephrase this, then. Defense Against the Dark Arts is a practical subject, no? Even the book says so. And because it does, my question is: why aren't we going to practice it?"

"Mr. Kurosaki, I think I made it clear that there wouldn't be any situation in my classroom warranting the use of defensive magic."

"Personally, I have trouble performing British spells," Ichigo pushed on, in futile attempt reminding himself to keep his voice under control. "If you are expecting me to perform a spell for the first time during _examinations_—"

"Mr. Kurosaki, if you would kindly keep your voice down."

Ichigo bit back a remark that would have definitely gotten him in detention, this time.

"Now, listen to me carefully," Umbridge said, her voice losing every last trace of breathiness, in obvious attempt to sound utterly serious. "Mr. Kurosaki, it is your own responsibility how you are going to be able to follow through the Ministry specified curriculum. For all intents and purposes, involving a class you've been at for less than a day—"

"And what good is the theory in the real world?" Potter interrupted her, his fist in the air.

For a moment, Ichigo thought he saw something flash in her eyes.

"This is school, Mr. Potter, not the real world," she said softly.

"So what you're trying to say is that we're not supposed to be prepared for what's waiting for us out there?"

"There is nothing, _no danger_ waiting for you out—"

"Wait a second!"

There must have been something in his voice, Ichigo noted, what made everyone simply take a break in whatever they were doing in order to stare at him. The classroom was utterly silent, his quiet, vehement voice stretching through it clearly. "Are you trying to tell me that once we're out of here, all that's waiting for us is sunshine and daisies?"

"Mr. Kurosaki, that is not what—"

"Well, I digress! There's future waiting out there, and there's…" _There's Aizen… no, wait. He's under arrest or something, so he's out of the race. There're still Hollows and Arrancars and… dangers these stupid idiots aren't even aware of. But I can't possibly tell her that, can I? _"There're monsters out there," he said, but his voice lost on the volume and forcefulness more than necessary.

"Mr. Kurosaki, there is no monsters waiting _out there_ and you are going to cease this imme—"

"There are things out there that you're completely unaware of, just because you were lucky enough to avoid it!" Ichigo snapped. _Seriously, what's wrong with me? This is bugging me more than it ever should… Damn._

"I do not know about your country, Mr. Kurosaki, but here there are no dangers that the Ministry is unaware of and even those that are capable of being… dangerous, are under control of the Ministry. Now sit down and speak no more unless if you want to get yourself in detention!"

"Now this is just plain discrimination," Ichigo hissed through his teeth, feeling his nails dig in his skin. And then he did something he was pretty sure was going to come back and bite him in the ass one day.

He flung his back over his shoulder and marched out of the classroom.

He could hear the protest of the old toad somewhere behind him, but he could have cared less.

He was furious.

He was furious about some old woman acting all high and mighty while actually being an ignorant idiot. It bothered him greatly that such a person had ever managed to get into the post of a teacher, but yet it was not surprising at all. Even more, it bothered him that she was cocky and arrogant enough to insult other, _obviously better_, teachers than herself. Not to mention that there she was, talking about how world is a nice place. How there's no danger lurking behind every corner. That was just plain insulting towards anyone who'd had the luck to look death in the eyes multiple times and survive.

But most of all, it bothered him that right there, right now, there was no single damn thing he could do about it.

These were mind games, not a battle of will. It was like fighting Aizen all over again, just this time he was enforcing his propaganda through diplomacy and laws and whatnot, not battle. Not war. And even if Ichigo were suicidal enough to start pointing out the flaws in the system for everyone to hear, he wouldn't be able to win. He was smart enough to understand that much.

He was a stranger, a total outsider in a _civilized_ world and beating up everyone surely wasn't going to have any effect on those highly-educated morons.

Still, he'd be damned if he'd wasted one other minute in that stuffy classroom.

Marching through the halls, angry as he was, Ichigo only realized several minutes after he'd left the class that he had no idea where he was going. He was standing in the middle of a corridor he was pretty sure he'd never been at before and, as if higher forces just wanted to mock him, there was no single person, dead or alive, anywhere near.

_Perfect. Just fucking perfect._

At this rate, he wasn't even going to get any dinner. _Damn_ it.

* * *

So... before people start going on a rampage for the lack of a _real_ conflict between Ichigo and Umbridge, I'm gonna try saying that I'm not sorry and that my head hurt from thinking about different outcomes. This chapter could have ended in several ways, with either Ichigo getting in detention, Harry getting in detention or both of them getting in detention, among others.

I went for option number four.

Maybe, in someone's opinion, it sucks. In my opinion, it opens up new possibilities and it is something I haven't really seen done yet. Besides, both Ichigo and Harry in detention with Umbridge seems a bit unlikely. Sure, in canon she used that quill thingy on students other than Harry, but I don't think she'd do it on two at a time. It's illegal. Strikes me as a 'three can keep a secret only if the other two are dead' type of thing. Or something...

Anyways, this is still just sort of setting up the scene so if anyone's afraid that Umbridge won't be getting what's coming for her - don't. It just might not happen in a way you expect.

Trailer:

_"I know," Hinamori sighed. "It's just frustrating. No matter how scary, that guy couldn't have possibly been worse than Ichimaru Gin."_

_"Well, he surely wasn't _that _persistent."_


	7. Chapter 6: Brighten up

To be honest, I wasn't sure about updating this today, but then I figured I could put up another extra long chapter before I'm off, suffocated by the large quantity of the study material I'll need to remember for the next five days. Don't expect the next update for at least a week. I'm a human, not a miracle-worker. I do try, though.

Disclaimer: Bleach and Harry Potter belong to Kubo Tite and J. K. Rowling respectively. I'm just going to completely turn their playgrounds upside down and shake them until I'm satisfied. Yes, shake them. Not stir.

* * *

Chapter 6: Brighten up

Harry left the Defense classroom in a considerably worse mood than what he had been at the whole day. He still wasn't sure if he was affronted with Hermione for stopping him from lashing out at Umbridge, or grateful because a part of him was quite aware that her perseverance and determination was the only thing that kept him from getting in detention.

He settled for mild annoyance instead, resolutely refusing to look at her as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

"What I mean to say, surely he is going to be in trouble now. Didn't you hear what she said? If he pulls off something like that again, he is going to be expelled, there's no doubt about it. Harry, are you even listening to me?"

Harry grunted affirmatively.

He knew what she was talking about, of course. Everyone was talking about it; about Ichigo's abrupt leave from Defense. It hadn't been even five minutes after they left class that people (who were not, in fact, there during the lesson) started talking about how Kurosaki just walked out of Umbridge's class, calling it bullshit. It would have been slightly amusing to hear it, had Harry not known that nothing of the sort happened. He just left. That was all. It's not as if he'd won the Quidditch cup or something, yet everyone seemed to be excited about it.

Well, other than Hermione. She was just being… Hermione.

And as the rest of the school continued buzzing about it, Harry found himself feeling partially grateful to the transfer, for giving other students something _else_ to talk about other than just him and how he was a crazy troubled and arrogant brat. He'd been the target of stabbing glares and not-so-silent whispers the whole day. At least now he got the evening break, if nothing else. At the same time, he didn't find Kurosaki's little stunt interesting.

But speaking of the new student, Harry couldn't help wonder where he was.

He hadn't been at the Gryffindor table when they arrived, and surely he would have gotten there before them, what with the ten-minute head start he'd had. Yet, there was no trace of that distinct orange hair anywhere.

"Dunno 'bout you, Hermione, but the bloke didn' look worried if you ask me," Ron said, his voice a bit muffled as he was still swallowing his dinner. "Sure, he's been frowning all day long, but he didn't seem to care."

"Well, that's the thing! How can he not be worried?" Hermione asked half-frustrated, half-exasperated. "He's been like that the whole day! In History of Magic! And Potions! Even during Ancient Runes, though not as much. It certainly doesn't seem as if it matters to him whether he's arguing with a professor or anybody else!"

"What I can't understand is why you are so worried about that," Harry remarked, if a bit bitterly.

"I'm—I'm not _worried_," Hermione insisted. "It's just… He's new around. Don't you think it would be… unfortunate… if he ended up expelled in less than a week? Think about it. After that fiasco with the Triwizard tournament last year, the intercultural correspondence with our country has decreased immensely and not many nations are willing to work with Britain in any fields. A country can't produce everything for itself. Japan is clearly cooperating by sending two of their students across the world to study, but I don't believe even they'd be thrilled about their student being expelled after only a week. Oh, wait. I meant a day."

Whatever Harry intended to say was forgotten when the subject of their conversation slumped into the seat next to him, _still_ scowling. The scowl had been there all day, Harry had noticed, but at the moment it was looking particularly prominent.

Didn't he ever get tired of it?

"You look upset," Neville, who was sitting right across Ichigo, observed.

"No kiddin'," Ichigo mumbled sardonically as he eyed one of the dishes warily. "How _the hell_ do you navigate these halls? It took me ages to figure out just on which floor I was, never mind getting here."

"You get used to it eventually," Neville said. For all intents and purposes, Harry noticed he was getting along with Ichigo just fine.

"Yeah, right. It's worse than even Seireitei, and that's saying something," Ichigo muttered disdainfully. Then, as if he'd changed his mind, "Damn, it was easier to navigate in Las Noches of all places."

"Err… what?"

"… Never mind."

And that was sort of where their conversation ended.

Much to everyone's surprise, less than ten minutes later, Momo Hinamori marched up to the Gryffindor table. If Harry had to guess, he would have said that she was looking quite a bit upset.

"Kurosaki-san!"

She had somehow managed to squeeze in between Ron and Neville, resting her hands right between each of their plates, expression on her face not particularly calm. Ichigo visibly backed away.

"Yo, Hinamori," was all he managed, looking rather skeptically at her. "Something-?"

She didn't even let him finish.

"Yes, something is the matter. You can't just go and leave trouble in your wake wherever you go! Do you want to be expelled early? Seriously, Kurosaki-san, I thought if nothing else you'd try to stay _out_ of detentions!"

Again, news traveled fast.

Ichigo, finally knowing what it was about, just snorted. "Just so you know; I'm _not_ in detention."

Momo crossed her arms over her chest. "Technicalities. If you're not careful, you definitely will be in detention by the end of the week!"

"Oi, slow down," Ichigo said, sounding rather annoyed. "It's not like I _want_ to be—"

"That's not the point!"

The two transfers were now the focus of the large group of Gryffindors – and other students that had the opportunity to hear what Momo was saying. Harry found the situation to be somewhat amusing, what with Ichigo's I-don't-care-about-detention attitude and Momo's don't-be-a-troublemaker one.

"Look, Kurosaki-san," Momo started, sounding as if she was at the point of pleading. "I _know_ you have issues with authority—"

"I _don't_ have _issues_ with authority!"

"—and I understand it is difficult for you to keep low profile—"

"Will you quit that already? I don't have authority issues! I walked out of the class before I made a bigger mess of things and let me tell you this, she had it coming! Dammit, did you _hear_ all the crap she's been spitting?"

No one even needed to wonder who 'she' was.

"Kurosaki-san, calm down," Momo said exasperatedly. "I'm hardly the best person to tell you this, but you can't solve everything by force. Sometimes, subtlety—"

"What part of 'she had it coming' don't you understand?" Ichigo countered, his dinner now completely forgotten. "I don't know about you, but her whole 'don't worry, be happy' attitude is pretty much saying that Hollows… hell, _Arrancars_ are actually fluffy little bunnies with angelic wings and Aizen is just the big bad monster under the bed that will go away once you turn the lights on! I'll be damned if I'm going to spend an hour and a half listening to _that_ shit. Not to mention that the class in itself is useless."

Something that Ichigo said struck a chord with Momo. The color of her face was now several shades paler compared to normal and her body seemed to have stiffened completely. And while Harry had no idea whatsoever what Ichigo was talking about, it was apparent that Momo did.

"Guess I shouldn't really scold you, then," she whispered, her voice suddenly very quiet and shaky. "I would have done something… alike… if less, well…"

"Explosive?" Ichigo muttered sarcastically.

"Ah… yes, explosive. Still I only heard you walked out of the class. Some people say you also called her class bullshit." She smiled faintly. "And that you blasted the door away," she added as an afterthought.

Ichigo shrugged. "Not really, but I was close to. Anyway, I don't have any intention of going back. It's a waste of time. All you do is read the goddamn book again. 'Wands away, quills out' is probably going to become her catchphrase or something. Damn, the whole Monday is a waste."

"Really?" Momo asked. Everything she said further was said in quick Japanese and Harry failed on catching a single word out of the speech she was giving.

Judging by Ichigo's face, whatever she was saying had surprised him a little. It only seemed to have gotten him more annoyed in the long run, before he patched his own reply in Japanese.

It was once Momo started talking in Japanese again that Ron had apparently grown tired of listening to them.

"English, please!" he demanded.

Momo looked at Ron in surprise and squeaked. "Oh! I forgot! Sorry, Weasley-kun!"

"If we're already talking in our language, doesn't that mean we don't want others to understand?" Ichigo asked the redhead darkly.

"Yeah… well… It's rude! It's rude to exclude people that way," Ron retorted, though he avoided looking at the transfer.

"It's not excluding, Weasley-kun, really. We're just…" Momo said quickly, though she was looking apologetic. "Uh… We'll try not to do that anymore. Anyways, I'm off to finish my dinner! Think about it, okay? Ja ne, Kurosaki-san!"

And she skipped away with one last smile in the Gryffindors' direction.

Ron was probably about to say something, judging by his half-open mouth, when Ichigo groaned audibly. "That girl is unmistakably insane."

"Charming, too," Ron added in a whisper, probably thinking no one would hear him.

The looks he had gotten from Hermione and Ichigo would have had any other person thinking twice about what they'd say next. Unfortunately, this was Ron. And he _was_ a Gryffindor.

"What? Can't I give a compliment for once?"

Hermione promptly looked away and ignored him the rest of the evening.

Ichigo just shook his head in I-don't-believe-this style.

* * *

Instead of going back to the Gryffindor Tower with his classmates, Ichigo opted for going to the library instead, by following Parvati's instructions. He wanted to make a list of spells that he was going to start practicing later, along with the characteristics of the spells. It had been the way Lupin had used for his notes and Ichigo found it practical, so hopefully, he'd be able to find a way to recreate it.

It was difficult to focus, however, because his mind constantly continued drifting back to what Hinamori had told him back at dinner. For a second, he was contemplating on asking whether she was nuts.

Offering to give him some training as soon as he regained enough of spiritual awareness was the last thing he'd been expecting from her. Now, he was clueless on what she meant when she'd said 'enough', but he had a feeling it probably had something to do with the more-transparent-than-not Yoruichi trailing around him whenever he was _not_ in class.

It had been an hour later that he returned to the Gryffindor common room, all on his own (after spending half an hour just trying to find the staircase leading to the seventh floor) with a rather short list of spells. For a magic library, finding things he needed was a rather difficult affair.

"Hey, you all right?"

The question, surprisingly, came from Ron Weasley of all people. The redhead was a few feet away on the floor in front of the fireplace, a parchment, quill and several books stretched out in front if him.

Ichigo nodded shortly.

"Did you get lost or something? Where've you been for the past two hours?" Ron asked, looking at him a bit wearily.

"Library," Ichigo said shortly as he settled in the armchair next to Weasley. He was getting a headache from all the brain use for the day. He simply wasn't _that_ much used to it.

"Already? It's just the first day!"

"British magic isn't exactly my forte, you know," Ichigo mumbled through gritted teeth. "Anyways, where're your friends?"

"Eh? You mean Harry and Hermione?"

"Yeah…"

"Went to bed early," Ron said gloomily. "Left me to handle all the homework myself… Oh, and where's Momo?"

Ichigo maybe should have though more of the question. Maybe he should have noticed the odd look on Weasley's face when he'd said it. As it was, he failed in both, instead dismissing the question with a simple shrug. "She could be back in Seireitei, for all I know. And now that you've mentioned homework, you've got any idea on what'd happen if we don't hand over that Binns' essay on Monday?"

Ron looked at him thoughtfully, not speaking for several long seconds. "You'd probably lose a grade or something," he admitted finally, "but I don't think you'd be much on a loss. Binns doesn't even remember students' names."

"Great." Ichigo forced himself up to his feet. "Well, I'm off to bed too. Damn, I'm tired. See ya in the morning."

"'night," Ron said after him.

The following day dawned gloomy and rainy and Ichigo would have rather continued sleeping for the rest of the day than forcing himself to get up. Half in daze, he followed Neville, Dean and Seamus for breakfast and then stayed with Ron, Hermione and Potter to ask them if there were any of the additional lessons that day.

"Muggle Studies and Care of Magical Creatures are scheduled in the afternoon," Hermione informed him promptly.

Ichigo only nodded briefly and then with them walked to the Charms lesson.

"Well, now that we've settled that, we can proceed to the lesson!" the diminutive professor said with a grin after he spent about ten minutes talking about OWLs. "Now, if anyone remembers how the Summoning Spell goes…"

Ichigo sighed in relief. While it wasn't something he was overly good at, the Summoning Spell was at least something he had had contact with so he wasn't going to disgrace himself. Not too much, at any rate. Besides, he just may be able to pick up on how it was supposed to work, this time.

"No, no, no, Mr. Kurosaki! You're doing it all wrong!" Flitwick lamented as he noticed how Ichigo for the fifth time in row failed to get the spell to work. "First of all, you are supposed to focus on the object you want to summon, not magic. Second, the wand movement is all wrong! Am I right to assume that this is your first time performing a spell like this?"

There was an accusation in the professor's voice, though Ichigo couldn't bring himself to care. Technically, he'd never used magic before coming to Britain and this was definitely not his first time performing the spell, but it was hardly his fault that it wasn't working. It's not like he understood how magic worked in the first place.

"Ano… I've been practicing a little on my own," he admitted. "For some reason, it never worked."

"Well, this is how you go, Mr. Kurosaki," Flitwick instructed, showing him the wand movement. "It's also important to say it out right. And don't forget the intent, of course!"

Ichigo nodded. Following the given instructions, he focused on the pillow and whatever the apparently invisible force around him was. "Accio."

The pillow fell down half-way towards him and Ichigo groaned. "Well, at least I've made _some_ progress."

"Try not to think too much about what you are doing," Flitwick instructed. "After all, the most important thing with magic is intent. I do not know on which principle you use it, but here, intent is the key. Go on, try again."

Gripping his wand a bit tighter, Ichigo said, "Accio."

This time, his focus was solely on the pillow getting in his hands so that he could master this damn spell already.

The vibe he usually felt when using magic had been especially strong this time and before he could even think about it, he saw the pillow bolting towards him. Only his quick reflexes saved hm from being hit dead on, as pillow loomed past his ear and straight to the window.

Fortunately, the force it hit with wasn't strong enough to break it.

Ichigo, along with the rest of the class, was speechless.

"A little bit less force next time, Mr. Kurosaki," the midget professor told him as he effortlessly summoned the pillow back. "But mind you, that was one fairly well done Summoning Spell."

Ichigo's only response was a strangled nod as he spent the rest of the class trying to figure out what exactly he'd just done. No matter what he did, he failed in recreating the effect. If nothing else, magic responded to him even less than before.

Double Charms were then succeeded by double Transfiguration. McGonagall spent just as much time talking about OWLs as Flitwick did that Ichigo nearly started napping in her class. He stopped himself when he remembered he wasn't exactly her favorite student at the moment, if the sour looks she'd been sending him all during breakfast were anything to go by. She'd probably heard from Umbridge that he hadn't been an obedient student in her class.

Frankly, he could have cared less.

"So," McGonagall was saying as her dully speech was finally over, "today we are starting Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until NEWT level, but they are still among the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your OWL."

This time, Ichigo treaded carefully. He didn't want a repeat of what happened during the Charms, so he tried to learn what exactly was getting in his way.

Not that he learned it, anyway. His fifth time was clearly a charm, because the snail he was trying to Vanish turned nearly completely invisible, but after that, whatever luck he was having had run out and he was back to being completely unable to do a thing.

He didn't find it very amusing that magic seemed to be working for him on-and-off, however it pleased.

"Mr. Kurosaki, a moment, if you will," McGonagall called when he was just about to leave the room.

"Is this because you couldn't get the spell to work?" Neville asked him silently.

"Nah… I don't think so," Ichigo said and turned around.

The door of the classroom closed behind him, leaving him alone with McGonagall in the classroom.

"Was there something you wanted, professor?" Ichigo asked in a futile attempt to act polite. He wasn't even sure why he was trying. He had a fairly good idea what this was going to be about, and he lacked proper manners anyway, not to mention that pretenses never did sit well with him.

"Mr. Kurosaki, I was just wondering if you have been made _aware_ of the situation concerning Dolores Umbridge," McGonagall said.

Ichigo had no qualms about looking her straight in the eye. "Not really," he admitted. "I've been drawing my own conclusions, yeah, and so far it just looks like she's here to let you know that the Ministry is spying on you… Political intrigue never was my forte. I prefer to just go ahead and beat up the problem until it's no longer a problem. Anyway, what's that got to do with anything?"

"Then, are you aware that there are only several professors in this school knowing the reason you're here?" McGonagall asked seriously, though Ichigo had a vague impression that she was doing this only half-heartedly.

"I was thinking more along the lines of you and the headmaster," Ichigo answered honestly. McGonagall gave him a look that could have frozen him solid… had he not gotten used to those before. Rukia knew how to be scary at times… and Toshiro was just… Toshiro.

"What? So other professors do know?" It just sort of sounded odd, now that he thought of it. None of the professors he had encountered so far, other than McGonagall, looked uneasy about a dead (or at least that's what they should be thinking) student.

"Some do, yes," McGonagall confirmed stiffly. "Dolores Umbridge is not one of those."

Ichigo snorted. "As if I didn't know _that_ already."

"Well, then you should also know that, should you do anything… irreversible… she just might pull something out of her sleeve to expel you."

Ichigo opened his mouth to retort, but McGonagall wasn't finished yet, "While I am certain that you do not place any importance in that, let me tell you that this would not only be causing trouble for yourself, but for the rest of your kind. Your secret is so far safe with us, but if you give Dolores Umbridge any reason to start prying—"

"I'll burn that particular bridge when I get to it," Ichigo cut her off. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a steadily increasing mountain of homework to finish—"

"Mr. Kurosaki—"

"Look, _professor,_" he said, deciding to use the authority he was never exactly given. He didn't fail to miss the threatening undertone, but he really didn't find it in himself to care. "I get it. All you've said, I get it. But if you think I'm just going to sit there and let that goddamn _frog_ tell me about how safe it is out there, then I'm going to retaliate. And that probably ain't gonna end well. So yeah, since you know why I'm here, keep that woman off my shoulders anyway you can, otherwise I'll have to do that and it's not going to be pretty."

"Mr. Kurosaki, the situation is delicate. No matter how _much_ I want to interfere, there is nothing I can possibly do that will warrant success."

Ichigo took a deep, calming breath. It had been expected, he assumed. "Fine. I'll try to keep my temper in check. Unless she strikes first. Then I'm definitely going to retaliate."

"Well, I guess I can't ask for anything more," McGonagall muttered disdainfully. "I surely hope you'll take my words into consideration."

"I'll _try_ to keep my temper in check," Ichigo said exasperatedly, rubbing his templates. "Now, I think I it mentioned already, but I have _a mountain_ of homework waiting to be finished—"

"You may go, Mr. Kurosaki. I would advise you to get some lunch first, but I guess that it is up to you."

Quite on the contrary to McGonagall's advice, Ichigo spent the whole lunch break in the library, towering over his two inches long essay on hellebore properties in potion making, only to realize he was missing on ten more. Across him, Potter and Weasley seemed to be having a similar problem, only regarding moonstone. Ichigo glared at every book that failed on giving him appropriate information, when out of nowhere Hinamori slumped into the seat next to him, looking thoroughly panicked.

"I… need help," she mumbled, keeping herself from looking at him.

Potter and Weasley looked up at about the same time Ichigo did.

"Err… what?"

Hinamori took a deep breath, and begun explaining, "Well, I'm having trouble with Potions… actually, the moonstone essay. Susan and Hannah said they'd be working on it this evening, but I've got History of Magic too, which they finished already, so…"

"Welcome to the club," Ron muttered darkly from his corner.

Hinamori scratched the back of her head, briefly smiling. "Anyways, they suggested that if I'm already in a hurry to finish it, I should come and ask you."

"I think Hermione would be a better choice for asking those questions," Potter told her quietly.

"I can't find her anywhere," Hinamori admitted.

"Well, you'll have to ask them," Ichigo muttered, indicating at the two Gryffindors immediately. "I've got hellebore instead of moonstone and so far I've got three whole sentences. And I've been at this for about twenty minutes. Not exactly a good progress."

Hinamori nodded, turning to the other two expectantly.

Ron and Harry exchanged a set of startled looks. "Err… all right," they muttered in the end.

Calling them flabbergasted when Hinamori jumped up from her seat and bowed deeply, shouting "Domo arigato gozaimasu!" would be an understatement. Even Ichigo watched with his eyes wide open. Hell, he'd never seen anyone acting just _so_ hilariously unpredictable and contradictive.

One moment she was this calm, collected analyzer type of person, then she'd suddenly turn into a hyperactive teenage girl, not necessarily around others either. It was just mind-blowing.

"I'll just assume that it means thanks," Ron muttered to Harry as the two joined up to share with her what they knew so far – which was not much at all.

Having revelations during the time he was supposed to be working on an essay wasn't something Ichigo was accustomed to. Hell, he wasn't accustomed to having revelations, flash-backs or any sort of sudden realizations at all. So understandably, he was a bit confused when something about Hinamori struck him as odd at that moment.

She was leaning over to read what Potter had written so far and her hair, falling free over her shoulders, was hiding most of her face from Ichigo. Something about it was wrong. She was smiling, but he had an odd feeling that she shouldn't be. And then she moved a lock of hair behind her ear and Ichigo realized what exactly was wrong with this situation – or him, at any rate.

He _knew_ Hinamori.

It probably sounded ridiculous at this point, seeing as they've been practically living together for over a week, but it only now hit him that he knew her.

Sure, even when he saw her back in Urahara Shoten, he knew her. Not by name, per see, but he'd seen her around, like during that time when it was Zanpakuto antagonizing the Soul Society. She'd been with Rangiku-san all the time. Other than that, he was sure he'd seen her several more times after that (perhaps even before), but that wasn't really the point.

It was Hinamori, back during the battle over fake Karakura. It was her who the Vizards and the Captains had been restlessly attacking. It was Toshiro's Zanpakuto sticking out of _her_ chest. Not some face-less Lieutenant he'd never seen before.

Somehow, everything Urahara had said about this being a recovery mission for Soul Society's agent now held a whole different meaning.

Ichigo was not unaccustomed to the emotion that was guilt. He got his fair share of it back when his mom died, when he faced Grand Fisher, when Rukia was taken away and even when Ulquiorra turned to ash right before his eyes. Guilt, regret, sorrow, remorse and anguish; he'd gotten to know all of it, each more than just once.

After that mumbo-jumbo 'never look back' speech that he'd gotten from Zangetsu, Ichigo sort of preferred to leave those feelings behind. He wouldn't forget them, but he wouldn't let them control him either. He'd just… move on.

Sure, that worked up until that fight with Ulquiorra, but things after that had been such a blur that he'd only started using his brain after being beaten up by his Zanpakuto for nearly three months.

Looking at Hinamori, right there, focusing on a meaningless homework instead of a mission that was, very likely, an evaluation mission of sorts, he couldn't help but feel guilt. She was fighting to get her rank back, to show that she'd recovered from the events that had affected her life and made a turn for the worse and… and it was Ichigo's fault.

Thinking back, he had been the only person there with any inkling of knowledge that it wasn't Aizen who was being attacked. He had been frozen, of course. He hadn't done anything until everything had been absolutely over and there was nothing to be taken back. It had been a shock for him, perhaps even more so than the others, because even now he couldn't remember why he hadn't done something. It was as if the pictures had been moving too fast for him to follow, but he saw exactly when the switch had happened and… and he could have stopped it.

He had been fast enough to do it. Or just yelling at them a little bit earlier, it would have worked. Why he hadn't was not something he had had the time to ponder on before and then it was forgotten once he did get the time. But not now. Now, the images kept coming back and the look on Toshiro's face when he'd realized what he'd done… and the look on everyone's faces when they'd realized what had happened… They were vivid enough as if they were happening _right now_.

The sudden feeling of something squeezing the life out of him wasn't anything new, of course.

What was new was the fact that he had forgotten about it.

Not moved on. Not decided to leave it behind for the sake of a better future.

He had completely forgotten about it.

And that—Ichigo's fist clenched around the quill he'd been trying to use, effectively breaking it—was unforgivable.

He waited until the bell rang and Potter and Weasley headed out to the Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Hinamori was quick to follow them, but right when she started saying her byes, he cut her off.

"Oi, Hinamori…"

Ichigo wasn't really sure what it was with his voice that had people reacting so oddly. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he wasn't trying to be loud or something, while normally he didn't have a tendency to be silent, but it could also be something completely else. Still, it's not like any of that mattered right now.

"Yeah?"

"I… I'm sorry."

Ichigo looked away uncomfortably, unsure how to take the puzzled look she'd been giving him. On one hand, she probably had no idea whatsoever what he was talking about. On the other, he couldn't, for the life of him, look her in the eyes again.

"Eh? Is this about the situation with professor Umbridge, because-?"

"No, not that," he said quietly, still refusing to look at her. "It's… back in fake Karakura… I could have stopped it…"

"Kurosaki-san… you're not making any sense."

By her voice, he could tell that he _was_ making sense.

He didn't really look at her when he said it. He was looking somewhere over her shoulder, and he wasn't really sure why, but he wasn't about to change his mind.

"Don't worry." That's what he said. "I won't let it happen again."

And then he walked back into the library without looking back. He had up until Herbology to get over the fact that he was being a moron _and_ finish the damned Potions essay.

* * *

Momo stood very still, looking in general direction where Kurosaki-san had just disappeared in. She blinked a couple of times, her hold on her books weakening.

"_That was…"_ Tobiume trailed off, in search for an applicable word.

"…Weird," Momo supplied quietly. She shuddered.

"_I was about to say 'very sweet of him'. Doesn't happen every day that a hottie declares you've been put on his must-protect-at-all-costs list, no? And in such an aloof, cool and smexy way, too! Did you see that look in his eyes? Damn, Reiatsu or no Reiatsu, I bet even Aizen wouldn't have dared to come close!"_

Momo started feeling oddly warm. She wasn't sure how to react. She certainly wasn't about to blame Kurosaki-san for anything, because it really wasn't his fault. Had she been in his position, she probably wouldn't have known what to do either. It's not like she could hold it against him, even if she wanted.

On the other hand, it was… comforting to know that there was someone out there ready to stick up for her. At the same time, it was troubling. Kurosaki Ichigo had a bad habit of going against anything that didn't register as 'right' in his mind.

So far, he'd broken into Soul Society on a whim to save someone he barely even knew, then he broke into Hueco Mundo to get his friend back despite the possibility of the said friend actually betraying them all (_didn't happen, but could have_, Momo thought,) and the lone fact that it was _Hueco Mundo_, he also fought a war he never had to in order to protect everyone he cared about and sacrificed his powers with a single objective of stopping Aizen, effectively spending everything he had ever fought for in only several minutes.

Hell, it was a miracle he was still alive, though there were rumors going around Soul Society that he'd died _thrice_; once because of Urahara Kisuke, and twice because of Ulquiorra Schiffer. There was nothing confirmed as of yet, but even if it suddenly turned out that it's true, Momo wouldn't be surprised.

How he was still alive… and still _human_… was beyond her comprehension.

Not to mention that he got involved with the whole Kasumi-Oji affair just because he thought it was wrong… And that he'd gotten involved with the Zanpakuto Rebellion because Kuchiki-san had happened to be attacked in front of him. And before that the whole chaos with the Bounts…

Momo sighed. Really, there was only one conclusion she could come up with from this whole thing.

_Tobiume, if I ever get in trouble, please remind me to make sure that Kurosaki-san doesn't find out about it. Okay?_

Her Zanpakuto huffed. _"Not okay! You saw that determined, hot look in his eyes, I know you did! Who the hell wouldn't want to be saved by him?"_

_And I thought we've made a vow that we'll never allow ourselves to be weak anymore,_ Momo thought softly.

"_Of course we have! But this is Kurosaki Ichigo we are talking about! We can make an exception!"_

Momo was about to retort when she realized she'd been standing in the corridor on her own for about five minutes, bickering with her Zanpakuto restlessly. Inwardly, she groaned.

_Professor McGonagall is _so_ going to butcher me for this!_

"_Oh, give it a rest. It's not like you're here to study. Besides, you really should have used the chance to stay with Ichi-kun… who knows, maybe you would've succeeded in seducing him?"_

_I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that. But… it's nice that you're back to being your excitable self. I missed it._

"_Oh, shut up. I was just being supportive while you were acting like a complete dope. Now I can finally go back to being my cynical self without having you whine about how I'm being insensitive the whole time."_

_Good to have you back, Tobiume._

"_You know, you're really late for class right now."_

Momo palmed her face hard before she started running. _You think maybe I should leave my Gigai behind and just use Shunpo?_

"_Go ahead, but don't start whining when they ask you why the bloody hell you are wearing a sword around."_

… _Point, that._

* * *

The most of his free period Ichigo had spent in the library on his essay. He'd been hoping to get to practice some magic, too, but that plan went out the window the moment it turned out that for all his hard work, his Potions essay was now about five inches long and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep working on it. Hell, for a moment he even thought of getting 'the secret notebook' thingy and sending a message to Rukia… or Inoue… or _anyone_. He hadn't heard from anyone at all since that brief conversation with Inoue and he never did reply Rukia after her little impersonation of Kanonji. Not that he did it, though.

By the time his 'free period' ended, Ichigo was already half-way down, going towards the greenhouses.

He ran into the group of noisy Hufflepuff girls, among them Hinamori, and simply for the sake of not getting lost, he stuck around. Hinamori didn't so much as bat an eyelash. She was acting, well… certainly not normal, seeing as she was telling the other girls how much she _didn't_ like the Hogwarts uniforms, but not that much out of character, either.

They were just out of the castle when they encountered a group of in total five Slytherins, heading inside.

"Oh, not _them_," one of the girls whined.

"Hello, Jones! Still trying to get rid of the _itch_?" one of the two girls asked cynically. The blond guy with pointy chin smirked and two gorilla-like students behind him sniggered. The other girl just snorted.

The Hufflepuff girl that had whined only a second before now frowned. "What is it with you, Parkinson, and your tendency to get involved with others' business?"

"Is that a way to treat your fellow student, Jones? My, you're awfully rude today, you know," the Slytherin girl – Parkinson, that's how she'd been called – said. "And here I was just concerned about Macmillan's sanity."

The two gorillas outright cracked up. Ichigo felt a sudden urge to kick those two in the face. Whatever they were laughing about had the other girl – Jones, apparently – almost in tears. Her fists were clenched and her teeth gritted. The ginger-haired girl put a hand on her shoulder consolingly.

"Ignore her, Megan. She's only trying to get a rise out of you, don't give her the pleasure."

Jones nodded scornfully, wiping away a tear, before the two just pushed past the girl and stalked over towards the greenhouses. Parkinson, who'd been following them with her eyes, now turned back, an awful sneer on her face.

"Well, wouldn't you know? She's _still_ so sensitive about something _so_ _old_."

"Oh, like _you're _the one to talk," Hinamori said sharply. Ichigo winced at the tone of her voice. It was the first time he'd heard her sound that angry. "If I remember right, wasn't it _your_ fault that she spilled the whole potion?"

"My fault?" the other girl asked in obviously faked disbelief. "Oh come off it, new girl. I didn't _do_ anything."

"Other than pretending that you've tripped on my foot, no, you didn't," Hinamori snapped back.

"I'm pretty sure it was _you_ who tripped her, actually," the blonde boy drawled, the smirk never disappearing from his face. "Watch what you're doing, new girl. The next time you try to pull a stunt like that, you may lose more than just house points. Good thing your plan didn't work out, after all. It would have been embarrassing to be covered in that sticky goo of her potion."

"My plan? _You_…?"

"I think I just said that—"

"Lay off," Ichigo interjected. The drawl was hurting his ears and whatever this was about, these assholes were obviously picking on someone who didn't really have an apt character to deal with false accusations. And if this continued, they'd all probably be late for class.

The blonde now focused on him, grey eyes blazing. "Sticking up for a friend, are you? How _Gryffindor_ of you… But if you'd already wanted to exploit house spirit that much, you should have dyed your hair red, not orange. Then again, Gryffindor colors _are_ red and gold. Maybe you were just going after this really odd mix of those two colors." His smirk promptly changed into a mock-frown. "It's certainly original, unlike the rest of your house."

"That just now deserved one very solid punch in the face, I'm tellin' ya," Ichigo said, his voice positively vehement. Apparently, his hopes that people would leave him alone here regarding his hair were futile.

"Barbarian, are you? I heard all the Mudbloods are."

At this, a little bit of Ichigo's rage vaporized away and he wasn't sure whether to punch the shrimp or just snort at the very un-insulting term he'd just heard (if that even was an insult, anyway). In the end, he chose option number three.

"Am I supposed to feel insulted or something?"

Clearly, he'd done the right thing. The blonde's confident little frown disappeared, replaced by sheer incredulousness.

Ichigo preferred using kicks or punches or generally any form of violence when dealing with annoying people, but there was something interesting and satisfying about the way people looked when they were outwitted. Certainly one of the reasons he hadn't beaten up Ishida yet, after all. His baffled expressions were usually more entertaining than seeing him all bruised up.

However, the incredulousness was gone, the sneer taking over instead. "Oh, so it turns out no one's bothered to explain you. Guess I'll have to do the honors." His sneer widened. "It means dirty blood. Often used as a way to define those who are clearly not _good enough_ for what they get."

Ichigo found it that his scowl had gotten a bit more prominent, but other than that, nothing really changed. Especially because that explanation just now didn't make any sense. "So… you've just called my blood dirty…" he concluded.

"Figuratively speaking," one of the Slytherin girls chirped in unhelpfully.

Ichigo felt his eyebrow twitch. "Figuratively?" he repeated.

"Are you so dumb that you can't even understand what we're saying?" the blond said. "I mean, even for a Gryffindor you _must_ understand that."

"All right. From the first second you've showed up here, all you've been doing is mocking my friend, my hair, my blood and even my intelligence. Give me one very, _very_ good reason not to punch the life out of you right now."

"He's a prefect, you barbarian jerk," the Parkinson girl said.

"Not good enough. Any other reason?"

"Kurosaki-san, I don't think it's a good idea to get in detention right now," Hinamori muttered.

"Sorry, Hinamori. Still not good enough. Next?"

"Listen to the new girl, Mudblood. You don't want to get your filthy muggle mammy upset, do you?"

"Oh, _now_ you've done it."

Before anyone could even _think_ of stopping him, Ichigo scored a punch in the blonde's face, effectively breaking his nose _and _punching several of his teeth out. The blond staggered backwards, hand clutched over his bleeding nose. He spit out some blood, the look in his eyes revealing shock.

"Oh, come on. That was nothing. I've been out shape for _months_. Don't go crying your eyes out," Ichigo snapped.

Whatever the brat did, it was not retaliate. Rather, he mumbled something to the gorilla-like bullies that immediately rounded on Ichigo. It hadn't been good enough even for a warm-up.

Ichigo only made a slight step back as one of them tried to punch him, the fist missing his nose by a mere millimeter and the attacker, losing his footing, staggered away quickly.

The other one tried punching him in the abdomen, but he was slow enough for Ichigo to grab his wrist, twist it (probably even break it), then dig his knee in the wannabe bully's stomach.

While that one slumped to the ground, groaning, the first one tried attacking from the side, using his height and muscles to his advantage. Or the better term would be disadvantage, as Ichigo simply ducked, slamming a fist in the guy's midsection. It was surprisingly… painful.

The big one fell down next his buddy, gasping either for air or because of the pain.

Scowling over the fallen idiots, Ichigo rubbed his abused fist. "Damn, are you made of hard steel or what?" he asked the taller guy.

He only got a groan in response.

"Yeah, didn't think so."

The majority of the students present just stared at him. Hinamori was the first to pull herself together, seeing as it wasn't really her first time seeing a fist-fight. Though in her personal opinion, the Slytherins didn't stand a chance against someone who was fairly decent in both, Hakuda and Zanjutsu, Reiatsu or not.

"You _really_ didn't need that, Kurosaki-san," she said exasperatedly. "Now you'll surely be put in detention."

"Who cares?" Ichigo asked rhetorically, shaking his hand. "I really need to get back in shape. Haven't beaten up anyone for over a month now. Gotta say it felt… nostalgic."

"Only _you_ would feel nostalgic about punching someone, Kurosaki-san, only you," Hinamori muttered exasperatedly.

"Oh, shut up. He had it coming," Ichigo stated matter-of-factly.

"That he did," Hinamori agreed, rather calmly. Other students began gathering around, curious to see who had gotten beaten up.

"Come on; let's just get to class. Don't wanna be late," Ichigo said.

In all the shock, haste and nostalgia, no one had even noticed that Draco Malfoy had taken out his wand, pointing it at Ichigo's back. A muttered spell, a flash of light and—

"PROTEGO!"

—and the beam of light aiming for Ichigo's back ricocheted of the magic shield that had formed right behind him, hitting the ground near one of the gorilla-like students.

Several girls, including Hinamori, gasped or screamed. Ichigo turned around, startled, mostly because he'd forgotten that wizards still had their little twigs. Hell, his was resting somewhere in his bag, completely forgotten during the whole incident. He looked over the small crowd that had formed, looking for whoever had cast that shield.

If he were being honest, Ichigo was a little bit surprised to see Potter of all people, standing there, his wand directed towards the blonde douche. So far he hadn't gotten a very good impression of Potter. Actually, he was thinking more along the lines of Potter _not_ liking him much, if at all. Sure, he didn't care, but this was a bit jolting.

"Eh… you didn't have to do that. It would have missed," he said awkwardly. He certainly wasn't going to _thank_ Potter or anything. Although he probably should.

"It would have hit you dead-on," Potter stated.

"No, it wouldn't have," Ichigo said stubbornly. He would have felt the spell when it got closer. The only question was if he'd be fast enough to dodge. Right now, the scales were leaning towards 'no', but Ichigo would have been stupid to admit that to anyone.

"Yes, it would," Potter shot back. "Just shut up and accept that I've helped you."

"I didn't _need_ help," Ichigo insisted.

"Not in beating them up, no," Weasley piped up. "But that would have definitely hit you dead on. It's not very nice to be hit with Furunculous, you know."

"Give it a rest already," Ichigo muttered. He sent one very vile glare towards the blonde. "Stubborn one, aren't ya? I'm warning you now, don't do that again."

He didn't really do anything other than glare at Ichigo defiantly.

"Damn, I can't believe you beat them up so effortlessly!" Ron beamed suddenly as the group walked over towards the greenhouses. "How did you move so fast?"

"Practice," Ichigo replied shortly.

"So you're practicing Martial Arts?" The question, surprisingly, came from Neville, who Ichigo earlier hadn't even spotted in the crowd.

"Used to," Ichigo said. "I quit some years back, but it's not hard to stay in shape when there're so many people out to get me."

"And _why_ are there people out to get you, unless if you did something to them first?" Hermione pressed. Ichigo just blankly stared at her, trying to get where she'd come from, before dismissing it. If Potter and Weasley were there, she was probably not too far off.

"I didn't do _anything_. Most of them just seem to like picking on me because of my hair. I can't just let them go ahead and beat me up."

"Well, surely talk—"

"Since when has talk ever worked on thugs?" he asked reasonably.

"Point," Weasley said.

"Then how about reporting it to the teacher—"

"It's not like _they_ can do anything about it once you're out of school. Not to mention that most of those picking fights with me aren't even from _my_ school," Ichigo said. As an afterthought, he added, "And it's not like they'd be able to do something even when I'm at school. _In class_, even. I still don't get how come that Ochi-sensei had simply let Renji walk in during one of her classes."

"And this Renji was someone picking a fight with you?" Weasley asked curiously. Much to his surprise, Hinamori started chuckling.

"I heard about _that_ particular incident," she said innocently at the look she'd received from Ichigo.

He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, just saying. I think I'm safer out of class, rather than in class. At least then most of the annoying ones wouldn't know where I am."

"Hey, you didn't-!"

"Mr. Kurosaki! Mr. Potter!"

Both Ichigo's and Potter's heads twisted in the direction from which the shout came, only to see Snape storming towards them, the blonde staggering behind.

"Perfect. Just bloody _perfect_," Potter uttered.

"My office, right now!" Snape ordered.

Potter clenched his fists, curtly walking towards him.

Ichigo shortly asked Hermione, "Is there a rulebook in this school?"

"Uh, ye—"

"Good. Can you get it for me after Herbology?"

"I—"

He didn't hear the rest, as he marched up towards Snape as well. As they were ordered to follow him, Ichigo briefly heard Hinamori say,

"I _hate_ when I'm right."

He didn't even bother to sigh. It wasn't _his_ fault that everyone here seemed to be enjoying pressing his every button.

* * *

"How did it go?" Hermione asked the moment Harry and Ichigo settled at the Gryffindor table. They hadn't appeared back in Herbology and judging by their looks of anger and annoyance respectively, it hadn't gone all that well.

"Detention. Tomorrow evening," Harry said shortly, reaching for a plate of potatoes. "With Snape."

"Oh… well, that doesn't sound too bad," Hermione started uncertainly. It couldn't have been just Snape. The detention certainly didn't sound _that _bad, but something else ought to have happened.

Ichigo just snorted in his chin.

"We've each gotten fifty points taken," Harry continued. "Ichigo twice."

"Ouch," Ron muttered.

"Do you know what you'll be doing in detention?" Hermione asked. She was certain that it had to be something… bad. She couldn't see why else they would be looking that ticked off.

"Nothing good, that's for sure," Harry said.

"So you don't know?" Hermione pressed.

"Not literally," Ichigo said. "All we've been given is the 'You'll serve detention with me and I'm sure you'll enjoy it' from Snape."

"Then why the sour looks? I mean, sure, Snape is a git, but imagine having to do detention with Umbridge," Ron said.

"Point. But he looked… satisfied? Happy? I don't know. Whatever it is, Snape was relished at the prospect, so it can't be anything good. Not to mention that Ichigo started another brawl with him and cost us another fifty points."

"You did _what_?" Ron looked at Ichigo, flabbergasted. Apparently, his whole talk about Ichigo being his hero during Herbology just went down the sour. Oddly enough, Hermione found it amusing.

"He was asking for it," Ichigo countered. "I have no intention of paying for Mr. Pansy-ass' medical expenses."

Hermione gasped. "Wait, professor Snape couldn't have—"

"No, _he_ couldn't. So he just told Malfoy to demand anything he wanted," Harry said dully. "Guess he was just pissed with Ichigo at that moment to leave me out of the loop and then Ichigo nearly punched him again, so the discussion on that was never finished."

"Well I'm not paying his medical expenses," Ichigo declared. "And he isn't going to rope me into doing that even under the threat of expulsion. By the way, you found the rulebook?"

Hermione nodded sullenly, passing the book to him.

"I think the twins aren't going to let you live it down tonight," Ron said suddenly.

"What? Why?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, why? We didn't lose all those points purposely," Harry said.

"Not because of that! Remember that talk this morning? How they think it'd be cool to lose once? After what happened today, you'll probably be their heroes or something," Ron said.

"Why would we-?"

"I think they were serious when they said that they wanted to lose the cup this year," Ron said with a shrug. "Something about not wanting to be suck-ups. Can't say I understand their logic."

"Oh, they have got to be kidding," Hermione said. "Other than selling all those… things… of theirs, now they also want to lose the cup. Ron, can't you _do_ something about that?"

"ME? Why _me_? You're the one who's having problems with them!"

"Ron, you're a prefect! They're _your_ brothers! You surely know how to deal with them the best!"

"Yeah, sure. If I wanted them to treat me like they treated Percy, I might be able to think of something that would _maybe _slow them down. Not stop them. Never stop them."

"Well, then. Start thinking!"

* * *

On the other side of the Great Hall, a whole different discussion was going on.

"Where did he learn to move like that?"

"I know, it was _so_ fast! That git didn't even see what hit him!"

"Well, they deserved it. What did Malfoy say that had him ticked off so much?"

"I don't know. Something about his mum, I think. I didn't hear it very well."

Momo groaned inwardly, covering her face with both hands. She knew. She_ knew_ that something like this would have happened sooner or later. That whole incident during potions the day before wasn't something she was focusing on, mostly because it didn't matter to her all that much. It bothered her that Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy had lied about Momo tripping her, but nothing else. Nobody in Hufflepuff seemed to be holding it against her, either, so Momo really didn't think much of it.

And then it all just had to come and bite her in the ass.

"…I think he was sticking up for Momo."

She hardly resisted the urge to yell at them that it had nothing to do with her. Well, most of it, at any rate. She saw it right away that Kurosaki-san wasn't intending to let Malfoy get away with it. But then that brat _had_ to mention Kurosaki-san's mother…

Momo still wasn't sure what that was about. She knew, from all the talk back in Seireitei that it was a sensitive subject, but Kuchiki-san had refused to divulge why it was so, even when Rangiku-san and even Nanao-san started pressing her about it. Somehow, she even managed to say no to _Unohana-san_ and that was a feat to be admired.

Granted, Kuchiki-san didn't return to Seireitei for another week after that, but essentially, she'd managed to stand her ground, unlike most of the Seireitei and wider.

It was then that she felt something tickling down at her feet. Confused and a little bit afraid, Momo looked down. Only to find Yoruichi-san in the cat form, looking at her stubbornly.

"What are you doing here, Yoruichi-san?" she asked in Japanese, keeping her voice quiet.

The cat did her equivalent of a shrug. "I'm bored."

"You're… bored?"

"There's nothing to do around here," she whined. "I've managed to go around the castle and memorize some routes, but there are just _so _many. I'm too lazy to research it all. Besides, I need to talk to you."

Momo sighed. "All right," she said. "Wait here, I'll be back in a minute."

Straightening, she tugged Susan's sleeve. The girl had been participating an active discussion with Hannah and some fourth year girls about the new album of Weird Sisters, whoever those were, but she turned to look at Momo. "Something the matter?"

"Cover for me," Momo told her shortly before diving under the table. Susan squeaked. "Momo, what are you-?" but the other girl was gone. Other than Susan, only Leanne and Justin noticed it. They both shrugged.

Susan took a deep breath, before turning back towards Hannah. She would need to do something about that girl, she knew.

Momo, in the meantime, was crawling after Yoruichi underneath the long Hufflepuff table, trying to avoid any stray legs that she might run into.

"Remind me to never do this again," she told Yoruichi with a sigh.

"Well, it was _your_ idea in the first place," Yoruichi informed her.

"I _know._ Remind me not to get these ideas anymore."

"Okay, sure. If I remember."

"Yoruichi-san! OW!" Momo rubbed the back of her head, having just hit at the table. Somebody's pumpkin juice was knocked over in the process. She could hear panicked voices all around her.

"You should learn how to turn into a cat as well," Yoruichi told her. "It'd be easier to sneak around."

"I wouldn't be sneaking around had you not said that you needed to talk to me!"

"Details, details," Yoruichi dismissed. "Come on, we're almost at the end."

Momo nodded, but she stayed hidden under the table a bit longer. She swallowed her soul pill, effectively getting out of her Gigai. Crouching in a position that was going to be good enough for what she was intending to do, Momo grabbed her Gigai by the wrist and Shunpo-ed out of the Great Hall before anyone got a chance to see her.

"I swear, it's just as if I'm back in the academy again, sneaking food to Abarai-kun while he's in detention," she said as they walked along the abandoned hall with Yoruichi in the lead.

"No wonder you're so good at using Shunpo from that position. I don't think anyone even got a chance to notice it."

"What did you want to talk about, Yoruichi-san?"

"Oh, come on! You've just gotten praise from the Goddess of Flash! Perk up!"

"Yoruichi-san, this is important," Momo insisted. "What did you want to talk about?"

"No, it isn't. But it will be."

"You're just speaking in riddles, now. Yoruichi-san, please—"

"I found the Headmaster's office."

"So _that_ is the big news?" Momo asked incredulously.

"_No_. That's supposed to get you off track and effectively pull you away from the serious subjects. You need to loosen up, Hinamori."

"With you and Kurosaki-san around, I hardly think loosening up is a good option," Momo informed her. "Who knows? He just may end up antagonizing the entire Hogwarts and I for one wouldn't find it strange if you'd just go ahead, you know, for the kicks, and transform before the whole school while he's in the process of beating people up. Imagine the chaos," Momo deadpanned.

"You know, that _doesn't_ sound like a bad idea."

Momo groaned audibly.

"Too bad Ichigo still can't see me very well. Oh well, I'll keep it in mind for future references. Where do you keep getting these good ideas from?"

"You had something to tell me, Yoruichi-san?"

"Oh, god… Okay, you win. Follow me."

And in the speed no cat should _ever _be capable of moving, Yoruichi-san disappeared. Locking onto her Reiatsu, Hinamori followed, until they found themselves at the top of what Momo assumed to be the Astronomy tower.

"I guess we won't be overheard here?" she asked.

"Nope. Sort of why I brought us here in the first place," Yoruichi said.

"Can we please get on the subject now?"

"Fine. Soifon's got memory issues."

Momo just stared at Yoruichi for several long seconds. For some reason, the other party was refusing to look at her. In the end, she asked calmly. "As in Soifon-taichō?"

"Do you know anyone else going by that name?"

"Right. Point. Well, how does this tie in with our mission?" she asked.

"I don't know. I was only present during the first time she lapsed. It was enough to confirm that someone has been messing with her head. She wasn't happy about it. I'm sure that by now either Urahara or Kurotsuchi managed to confirm that theory. That's why Hitsugaya's gone back to the Soul Society."

"Wait, Toshiro-kun went back?" Momo asked, suddenly thoughtful. According to the details she'd been given, the back-up unit was supposed to be on stand-by and ready to act at any moment. There was always a member present at Hogwarts to keep an eye on things, and the rest of them weren't too far away. Toshiro-kun should be gone every weekend to keep divisions in order and should be back on weekdays. If he went already… _then this has to be serious._

"Yes, to get some additional information," Yoruichi confirmed. "I'm not sure when he'll be back, but probably not before the next week. In the meantime, Rukia, Hanataro and Kira are in constant contact with Soul Society so you can ask them about it."

"I will, probably," Momo said. "This probably won't matter much to you, but am I the only one thinking that there's something going on behind the scenes? Something we should be aware of, but we aren't?"

"Other than the ongoing war with this scary dark wizard you've mentioned?" Yoruichi asked. "With this boring nickname… and a weird name that I can't even bother to remember. It's troublesome, no? Ministry denying his return and all that because he'd done some shit in the past. Afraid of him, I'd say."

"I know," Hinamori sighed. "It's just frustrating. No matter how scary, that guy couldn't have possibly been worse than Ichimaru Gin."

"Well, he surely wasn't _that_ persistent." Yoruichi sighed. "Anyway, I think there's something weird about this, too. Soifon's memories are possibly the key, but we'll have to wait to see what's up with that. In the meantime, can you go and check if there's any magic spell capable of replacing memories, sort of like Kikanshinki?"

"I'll look into it," Momo said. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. I'm spying on Ichigo tonight."

"Eh? Why?"

"To make sure he isn't using his bad-boy status to seduce the poor and innocent Hogwarts girls, of course."

"Yoruichi-san! Y-you! How can you say that and stay serious at the same time? Oh, I'm scared to death even thinking how well you and Tobiume would get along if you ever got a chance to talk."

"Well, at least you've loosened up! Ja ne!"

"Wait, Yoruichi—"

Momo cut herself off when she realized she'd just be yelling in the empty space. _Don't snigger about this,_ she ordered Tobiume. The loud laugh echoing somewhere in her Inner world only had her more frustrated. Looking at the dark, apparently very cloudy sky, Momo didn't stop her lips from curving up.

_For all the silly things she's done so far, Yoruichi-san is right. I really need to loosen up a little. _The curve died away just as quickly. _What would you say now, Aizen? Would you be secretly glad that I'm moving on? Or would you try to destroy my dreams once again?_

Her only response was a drop of rain falling directly on top of her head.

_Right. Lesson number one. Don't ever have reminiscing thoughts while looking up at the sky. The Universe is always listening._

* * *

Trailer:

_"Oh, _no_…"_

_"What the bloody hell was that for?"_


	8. Chapter 7: Checking in

Sorry guys. This one's a bit shorter chapter than the last two, but adding more would sort of mess up what I had in plan for the next chapter, so yeah... I still got it out a bit earlier than planned. Let's get right on the chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Harry Potter

* * *

Chapter 7: Checking in

Kuchiki Rukia sat at the top of a tower at Hogwarts, moving only so slightly when the rain started falling. She was protected by the small roof that was there, probably for this purpose. She just watched the scenery ahead of her for a while, unsure if she even wanted to move.

Her eyes were mostly set on the lake, each new drop that touched it creating miniscule waves on the otherwise calm surface. The only light was coming from the castle itself and not much could be seen. For a gloomy weather as it was, the air itself was rather peaceful. Only an occasional dash of wind would blow past her, not enough to move even a lock of her hair.

It was probably only several other minutes before Hanataro would arrive and take over the shift. Rukia smiled softly to herself. It was almost eight now. She was tired. She was proud.

What she was proud of, she wasn't certain at all. It definitely wasn't herself. Which is probably a funny thing, because she was sitting right there, sporting this new weight at her arm, bearing the emblem of her squad. It meant so much to her. It was that her hard work had finally paid off. It was that she bore the title that had formerly belonged to the person who still held a special place in her heart. It was that she had gotten it only after everything was over. After everything had been said and done. After everything had faded away.

Kuchiki Rukia was not a silly person.

She had both her good and bad qualities and she had her priorities. Except that, ever since she had passed on her her powers to Ichigo, most of those priorities had been turned upside down and had been shaken far too many times to count, leaving her dazed and confused and angry, because she wasn't sure what she should do, what was the right thing to do.

It had all become clear the moment she realized he could no longer see her.

It had been the right thing to do; not look at him after that. But she had kept coming back. Every single minute of a break she'd gotten, she had spent in the living world, watching over him. She needed to pay it back. She needed to pay everything back. And if that meant following him around until the day he died, then so be it.

She had ignored it for about a month; the fact that he had seemed to be getting depressed or something. She had even talked to his sister on the subject once, but Rukia had never done anything to act upon it.

Sometimes, when she had seen him walking all on his own, she had wanted to just stab her sword through his heart if just to get rid of that haunted look in his eyes.

But she had to wait. There had been a plan underway, a plan to get his powers back. Make him into a normal Shinigami, not a too-damn-powerful-too-exist creature that he'd become to protect them all. Rukia had been pretty sure that he'd probably go ahead and let them… her… anyone… do it, if it meant getting his powers back. Of course, she had been right.

She hated it.

He deserved a normal life, he deserved a chance to be a human, go through a phase they all had once before, yet he was ready to throw it away. Hell, he'd done it multiple times already, but it just stayed sticking to him, tearing him apart.

_This mission_, she knew, _is going to be the breaking point._

And she wasn't sure how to feel about that. Ichigo's choice was obvious. He wouldn't be there if he wasn't aware of all the risks or simply didn't deem them important. She knew that he knew that Gotei Thirteen had every intention of using him as much as they possibly could. As much as he would ever allow them. She was aware that once he got his powers back, he was probably going to be offered a Captain's post, probably of the fifth division and that only then he'd be given his very limited freedom.

That's why they sent Hinamori Momo, after all.

Neither of them probably knew it, but they, as in most of the older Captains and Central Forty-Six, wanted them to become friends of sorts. Or at least allies. Or even more, if possible. They wanted to know that they could bring them close and control Ichigo through her and perhaps even convince him to take the post. At the same time, Hinamori Momo would finally recover and get back to her normal duties, stronger. Much stronger. Like every other person hanging around Kurosaki Ichigo. They'd get two birds with one stone, with none the wiser.

Rukia wasn't sure what she thought on the matter.

For one, she knew that Ichigo would need a really, _really_ good reason to ever join the Gotei. And even that went under the category of 'maybe'. She didn't tell that to the Captains when they'd asked her opinion, of course. She wasn't stupid. She just told them that Ichigo had a brain of his own and if he wanted something to do with Shinigami, he wouldn't go roundabout way about it, the way they were.

It wasn't a very smart thing to say. She'd lost the credibility she may have had before, but she could care less. After that fiasco with the Central Forty-Six wanting to seal away Sado's and Inoue's powers, Rukia wasn't about to let them have it their way.

Kuchiki Rukia respected the Gotei Thirteen. Kuchiki Rukia prided herself on being a member of it and she also respected Central Forty-Six.

But even more than that, she respected what a group of human teenagers had done for her when they ultimately weren't obligated to. So maybe that was the reason she was sitting there, looking ahead, hoping that Ichigo didn't change and that once he's offered the position, he'd turn it down and shove it up their asses.

It wasn't going to happen, she supposed. If they pulled a good enough blackmail, or perhaps thought of a good enough reason, Ichigo would become a part of them. A part of Gotei. A part of the corrupted military unit that listened to a group of wrinkly old men who had never been out there and fought a war.

She smiled a little at the prospect. The Ichigo she knew would very likely tell them to shove it and leave him alone. Or he'd start another form of rebellion, leading Soul Society in a war, with half the Shinigami on his side. Somehow, that didn't seem to be such a terrifying thought anymore. Because the opposite side would eventually give up. Ichigo just had that sort of effect on people. When he started sticking up for something, he wouldn't ever back down. And others would just have to get used to the idea.

Again, Rukia smiled.

_I'm losing faith, no? _

The Sky did not respond.

_Of course I am. After everything, how could I not? _

Kuchiki Rukia prided herself on being a Shinigami. It was a part of her and the lone prospect of ever losing her powers again had her squirming and resisting as much as possible. But she was not, in anyway, inclined to listen to fools leading her around the bush. She took the Vice Captain's badge in order to change things – start from zero… from the beginning. From the core of the problem.

If the old noblemen had a problem with that, she didn't give a damn.

But she knew that she couldn't fight that kind of a war alone. She knew that if she tried, it would eventually lead to her defeat and death, and to death of everything else she was fighting for. The idea would remain for someone else to build upon, but everything else would be lost. That wasn't something she'd allow.

Rukia wasn't sure why she was hoping that Ichigo could change that. It was evil, selfish and it was putting a burden on his shoulders that he was not even aware of. But he had the power. He had a reason. He had common sense.

Hell, he was a human and he'd done things that others had never even thought possible.

And maybe, just maybe, he could put it some good use… before it went down the drain.

"…Kuchiki-fukutaichō…"

"I think I told you not to call me that way, Hanataro," she said quietly.

"A-ah! Sorry, Rukia-san! You just… you looked like you were a bit lost in thought, so I just… Are you all right?" Hanataro asked, looking much like his normal, nervous self.

"I'm fine," she said. "Keep an eye on Ichigo. For the two days he'd been here, he's managed to get two professors and probably a handful of students out for his blood. At the rate it's going, an attempt of assassination during sleep is not to be ruled out."

"A-ah…"

She noticed, of course, how Hanataro had no idea what she was on about.

Rukia smiled. "Don't worry. Unless Ichigo goes ahead and does something exceptionally stupid tonight, it'll be all right. You won't have much work. Do keep an eye on the Headmaster, though. I haven't had much luck."

Without waiting for his response, she Shunpo-ed away.

She needed to get some sleep. Keeping an eye on Ichigo eight hours per day seemed to be screwing with her head and she'd only been at it for two days.

* * *

Wednesday dawned just as gloomy as the previous day had been. But, for a difference of Tuesday, that Harry had a feeling had lasted so much longer than it ever should have, Wednesday was slipping through rapidly. Before he knew it, it was dinnertime and he was supposed to attend detention with Kurosaki Ichigo because he had 'participated' in Kurosaki's unorthodox method in dealing with Slytherins.

Harry couldn't say he was very thrilled at the prospect, but he knew that detention that evening was either going to go smoothly or Kurosaki was just going to cause _another _problem.

So far, everything was pointing to the latter.

"There you are, Potter, Kurosaki." Snape glared as they entered his office. "Put your wands over here."

He gestured at his desk and seeing no other choice, the two students followed the instructions. Along the way, Harry wondered a little bit at Snape's odd pronunciation of Ichigo's name, before giving up on it. It probably didn't matter, anyway.

"Follow me. You are going to scrub some of the cauldrons with no magic," Snape said.

The two followed, not saying anything at all.

"Once you are finished, you may come for your wands."

"Ano…" Kurosaki said, "We've got Astronomy later this evening."

"Then you better hurry up if you don't want to be late, Kurosaki."

He left them in the potions classroom, shutting the doors behind them. Harry wouldn't be surprised if Snape had been preparing for this especially. There were so many cauldrons waiting and the door behind them was locked. Certainly Snape had some way of knowing if they were finished or not – which definitely required planning.

Cursing the greasy git under his breath, Harry began to work.

He noticed Ichigo eyeing the cauldrons distastefully.

"Aren't you going to do this already?" he asked, probably with a bit more force than necessary.

Ichigo scowled. "Shut up."

He set out to work several seconds later.

Harry noted that Ichigo didn't seem to have a single idea of what he was even supposed to do, but he also didn't have any intention of asking. So Harry did the smart thing and refused to say a word. _This,_ he noted regretfully, _is going to be a long night._

And so, with no word spoken between them, the two teenagers set out to work.

* * *

Parvati Patil was a teenage girl with her likes, dislikes, accomplishments, issues, ambitions and crushes, much like any other normal teenager, magical or Muggle.

She liked the color of lavender, not because that was her best friend's name, but because there was something special about the shade that she couldn't quite decipher. It was soft and attention grabbing that she couldn't possibly ever stop liking it. At the same time, she disliked the color of pink because it went out of fashion _ages_ ago.

So far, Parvati had accomplished a lot. She had good grades even at difficult subjects, such as Potions and she excelled at even those that she didn't like all that much, such as Charms. She was also an ambitious girl, dreaming of the day she would become an accomplished Seer and get the whole world to understand that Divination was not, in any way, a load of waffle. That was one of the reasons she couldn't really befriend Hermione Granger.

Now, Divination is where her issues begin to form.

During the summer, she had been to a seminar about Divination (which she should not have ever been allowed to attend, but her mum agreed with her that she should know something more, so Parvati had managed to tag along) in which many subjects had been touched. One of those subjects had perked her interests especially, about how one could increase their Inner Eye's power by focusing on one single entity. It worked especially well if a person with a potential had not yet managed to grasp that potential.

She hadn't told anyone, not even Lavender, but she'd had every intention of trying it out.

And then, accidentally, she'd met the transfers on Hogwarts Express.

They were interesting, friendly and generally seemed like a nice mob and Parvati was ever so curious about the things they were keeping back, that she had decided to try out the technique on one of them.

She decided to go after Ichigo because she got to see him much more often than Momo, and so she followed the instructions.

It didn't require much, of course. All she needed to do was take several minutes to focus on him and reach out to her Inner Eye, with the condition of not trying to do that on anyone else until she was certain that she'd wanted to stop it. Problem was, she didn't know _how_ to stop it, but right now that didn't matter.

At first, she was sure that it hadn't worked.

During the whole of Monday she'd been hanging around him as much as she possibly could, but there were no visions, no flashbacks or anything of the sort, so she was ready to admit that it may have failed and that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't capable of being a Seer.

It was on Tuesday that she learned that that may not be the case.

She hadn't heard much of the argument among Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, but once she'd seen Susan and Megan approaching the greenhouses, Megan in tears, she couldn't help but get curious. She pulled Lavender along just in time to see Ichigo beating up the Slytherin boys and she started grinning.

They deserved having their asses handed to them, of course, so why shouldn't she enjoy it?

But then the whole image shifted and instead of Ichigo beating up the Slytherins, she saw Ichigo (looking much younger than now, mind you), beating up some other folks. Images were gone just as quickly as they came so Parvati really didn't know what to make of them, other than the fact that it couldn't have been future.

She avoided Ichigo for the rest of the day and throughout the whole of Wednesday.

Now, on Thursday morning, she was feeling very sheepish about this whole thing. If she already wanted to become a good Seer and had already started the process, she didn't have any right to pull away and give up now. If it turned out she was better in seeing past events rather than future, it was still _something._

So during breakfast, she reverted back to normal.

"How did the detention go, Ichigo?" she asked him when he arrived for breakfast. Neither he nor Potter showed up in Astronomy class so Parvati could only assume that they'd finished much, much later.

He shrugged. "Good enough that I don't ever want to do that again?"

Parvati smiled. He just had a knack for being interesting. That was all.

He looked exhausted.

"No one ever wants to do detention with Snape again," she informed him. "I believe you understand why now."

He mumbled something in response that she didn't really understand and proceeded eating his breakfast.

"Hey, what does Snape do when you don't give him an exactly twelve inches long essay?" he asked.

"Fails you?" Parvati offered. "To be honest, I don't know. I don't think anyone has so much as dared not to complete his essay. You may be the first one to even think of it."

He grunted something, which she ignored in favour of asking another completely legit question. "Are you going to try out for the Quidditch team tomorrow?"

"Eh? What?" Ichigo looked up at her with expression of mild confusion. It disappeared a second later, but the thoughtful look remained. "Err... no, I don't think I will," he said in the end.

"Why not? Sure, you don't really look built for a Keeper. Personally, I think you'd work better as a Chaser, but I don't see why you shouldn't give it a try," Parvati said, then smirked. "Don't tell me you're afraid of heights."

"What? No, I-! No. Just, dunno... not that much of a Quidditch fan, I guess."

"Aw, that's too bad," Parvati said, though the smirk didn't disappear. She didn't pursue the subject anymore.

Ichigo shrugged in response. He then just sighed when he saw Momo coming towards them. Parvati waved her, her smile widening when the girl waved back.

"Good morning," Momo said.

A muffled 'Morning' came from Weasley who was also sitting pretty close while Parvati and Hermione greeted her politely.

"Kurosaki-san, I need to ask you for a favor," Momo said, sparking Parvati's interest. Somehow, that always seemed to be case. Momo was hanging really much around the Gryffindor table during meals.

Ichigo looked up at her neutrally. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "I _know_ you're not going to like this," she said with a small smile. He seemed to be growing more anxious by second. "But could you please borrow me that notebook that Urahara-san has given us?"

Parvati wondered why he suddenly looked so relieved, but she didn't really get to question it.

"Err, I left it upstairs," Ichigo said. "I could pick it up n—"

"Oh, don't worry about it! You can give it to me during lunch, all right? I can't possibly make you go for it now."

"All right, sure."

"Thanks, Kurosaki-san." Momo smiled widely, before turning to the golden trio of Gryffindor. "Oh, and thank you for your help, Potter-kun, Weasley-kun. I got an 'A' at Potions." And with a nod, she skipped back towards Susan.

Parvati almost spit out all of the tea she'd been drinking as she saw the slight reddening of Ron's ears. _Hogwarts Gossip Network is gonna love this,_ she thought excitedly.

"Come on," she told Lavender. "We should go get our books."

Lavender shared a grin with her and nodded. "See you later," she told Ichigo and Parvati waved him.

She smiled at the absent 'Ja ne' she'd gotten back. Seriously, she'd have to improve her Japanese. All she knew right now was that 'Ichi' meant number one.

* * *

Settling at the Hufflepuff table to get some dinner, Momo used the chance to finally open Urahara's notebook. She'd been flying all over school the whole day, too busy with simple things to even consider intercepting Kurosaki-san before all of the classes were finally over.

Slipping some potatoes on her plate, Momo turned page thirty-one and wrote,

_Hinamori-fukutaichō requesting permission to speak to _

She hesitated there. Who should she ask for? Naturally, she'd ask for Toshiro-kun, but according to Yoruichi-san, he was in Soul Society, which meant she really couldn't ask for him right now. Sighing, she put the other name that she was more familiar with.

She'd been in the process of eating her potatoes and trying out the pumpkin juice when she got her reply.

_[Kira, Izuru-fukutaichō]  
Sorry for the wait, Hinamori-fukutaichō. I'll have to direct you to Kuchiki-fukutaichō because she is currently stationed at Hogwarts. I trust it is not an issue._

Hinamori frowned a little over what she read.

_No, that's all right. And how shall I contact Kuchiki-fukutaichō? _

_Turn page fourteen and follow the given instructions for the page._

_Thank you, Kira-fukutaichō. _

Momo turned page fourteen, not paying attention to Susan who was trying to read over shoulder. She repeated the instructions carefully to herself and set out to write.

_[Kuchiki, Rukia]  
Hinamori-fukutaichō requesting permission to speak to Kuchiki-fukutaichō.  
P.S.: Congratulations, Kuchiki-fukutaichō!_

The words disappeared only to, several minutes later, be replaced with,

_[Kuchiki, Rukia]  
Permission approved. Be at the Astronomy tower at midnight.  
P.S.: Thank you very much, Hinamori-fukutaichō! _

Momo smiled. _Seems like I'll have to speak to Toshiro-kun some other time_. _Well, at least it's final, now. Kuchiki-san must be really happy._

With a fleeting look at Kurosaki-san's direction, Momo closed the notebook. She'd have to ask him to keep it a little while longer, after all.

"What was that just now?" Susan asked.

Momo looked at her in surprise. "What was what?" she asked.

"That writing! The words just disappeared!"

"Uh, yes… it is _supposed_ to do that," Momo said uncertainly, quivering under Susan's disapproving look. "Is something the matter about it?"

"Well, _yes,_" Susan said.

"Why?" asked Momo.

"Because… Because…" Susan took a deep breath, apparently calming down, and said in silent voice, "Look, what I'm going to tell you now is only a rumor, but I'm one of those who believe it to be true, for the most part, so listen to me carefully. Is that all right?"

"All right," Momo said hesitantly.

"Three years ago, a series of incidents happened here," Susan said seriously. "Students were being petrified by _something_ and there were these bloody messages on the walls, about the Chamber of Secrets being opened once again."

"What is a-?"

"Chamber of Secrets is according to the rumors, a place where this scary monster lives, and apparently, in my second year, that monster was released out of it, on the students. Other sources call it Slytherin's secret chamber—"

"Who would set out a monster on students?" Momo asked, horrified.

"Well, that is the point," Susan claimed. "No one in their right mind would, but it's happened. Look, I can't say that it's one hundred percent true, but everybody knows that Ginny Weasley had been taken to the Chamber at some point. Sure, according to the same rumors, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley saved her and our Defense professor at the time went barking mad during the process, but there is only tiny little part that stuck to me as very accurate."

"W-what was it?" Momo asked.

"Who opened the Chamber of Secrets," Susan said.

"Who-?"

"Ginny Weasley."

"Wait, I don't—"

"It's confusing, I know. Apparently, she was the one who opened the Chamber, which is ridiculous because at the time she was barely eleven and she couldn't have known about it. This is something I heard accidentally, but it seems that she had gotten a diary; a diary that somehow managed to possess her made her do things she never would."

Momo frowned worriedly. "But… how could an object…?"

"Magic," Susan deadpanned. "All I'm saying is, be careful what you do with that thing." She gestured at the dark green notebook. "You never know what it might be. I've heard stories from my Aunt how scary objects that can think for themselves can be."

Momo shuddered. The notebook had been made by Urahara-san, she knew that. And she would have to be crazy to think that Urahara-san wanted to possess her. How would that even be possible? Still, there was a lot she didn't know about magic, so she couldn't rule it out, except that she wasn't sure if Urahara-san even used _magic_ while making it. And despite knowing that it would never happen, Momo couldn't help but look at the notebook with a little bit of doubt in her mind.

"Don't worry," she told Susan with a smile that she wasn't sure how she'd managed to pull of. "It's made by Urahara-san, the man responsible for me and Kurosaki-san. Its purpose is something of a way to contact our family, nothing else." Somehow, she was just trying to assure herself of it now.

"All right, I was just saying," Susan said.

"I know. Thanks."

"What are you thanking me for? I'm just being a friend. A bit nosy, yeah, but you can take it."

Momo grinned. "That's exactly what I'm thanking you for."

Later that evening, while the rest of the girls were still in the common room, playing Exploding Snap, Momo sneaked into the dorms, locking the door behind her.

"Stay there and pretend to be sleeping, all right?" she told the artificial soul currently occupying her Gigai. The soul nodded and settled in the bed. It was just a precaution, as she really couldn't risk it. She'd only started sneaking around school last night and this night she had the advantage of Yoruichi-san staying with Kurosaki-san again, not to mention that that she'd finally managed to get away with the excuse of 'I'm really tired' and go to bed herself, not with at least two more girls following.

She Shunpo-ed out of the dorms and then Hufflepuff common room before any student could get so much as a glimpse of her.

"_Remind me again why you are heading out this early,"_ muttered Tobiume lazily.

_You know that Leanne-chan is a light sleeper! I can't let myself be seen or heard. Didn't you notice that this first year girl spotted us last night?_

"_Advanced, really, for an eleven year old, at any rate. But she is a _witch…_ Oh, never mind. So no one must know about us sneaking around?"_

Momo nodded. _No one. This castle is too big. I've gotta learn the paths and shortcuts! And good places to help Kurosaki-san once his Reiryoku increases. Classrooms aren't very fitting for using Kido._

Tobiume dismissed the issue. Momo was okay with that. At first, it had seemed like an ingenious and a foolproof idea. She could make sure no one spotted her once she was outside the common room and she could roam practically everywhere without anyone getting in her way. Anyone at all.

However, she should have remembered that there was no foolproof plan when someone was sneaking around. Things could always go wrong and while she was well aware of that, she was hoping they wouldn't.

Turned out her hopes were in vain.

She was on the third floor, going past the library and back towards the main staircase when things had gotten pear-shaped. She had sensed the surroundings and felt someone coming in from behind shortly before stepping into the larger shadowy corridor, but what she failed in spotting was actually how close that someone was.

When a hand settled on her shoulder, Momo couldn't help but scream.

Instantly, she grabbed the hand and with full force, whipped that someone over her head and forcefully into the marble floor. When she recognized the person she'd just man-handled without so much as breaking a sweat, she screamed again, quickly covering her face with her hands.

"OH, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to—Please don't sneak up on me like that!"

"What… the ruddy… _hell _was that?" Ron Weasley asked dazedly as he forced himself to sit up on the marble floor, holding his head in an attempt to get a clear view of the hallway. The broomstick he was holding had fallen out of his hands when Momo had first grabbed him and ended up rolling across the hall.

"Are you hurt, Weasley-kun? I didn't mean to hurt you, I just—you shouldn't sneak up on someone like that! Does your head hurt? Want me to accompany you to the hospital wing?" She'd said most of it in a single breath.

"Damn, I'm seeing starts here… What d'you do?"

Momo offered him her hand, helping him stand up.

"I'm really sorry, Weasley-kun. I just thought you were someone else and… I reacted reflexively. I didn't mean to hurt you. Can you stand on your own?"

"Ye-yeah… I think so. What _did_ you do?"

"Err… it is a standard response I was taught in the Academy if someone were to strike from behind by hand. Over time it became an instant reaction – _oh _I'm so _sorry, _you're bleeding!"

"I'm not—oh…"

Momo bit her lip at the sight of his wrist. She had grabbed him a bit too hard, her nails digging in his wrist until they'd drawn blood. She bowed apologetically.

"I'm really sorry, Weasley-kun, hontoni."

"Err… yeah… ah… I'm all right so, yeah, it's all right. Wait, is that a _sword_?"

Momo froze in her tracks. Had he not said it right now, she would have completely forgotten she was out of the Gigai. As it was, she was staring at him, her eyes as wide as those tennis balls while she was trying to comprehend what the hell had just happened.

He could _see_ her.

Wait, that wasn't anything new. Even the first years could see her.

The problem was; he saw her Zanpakuto, and was now staring at her, mirroring a goldfish.

Her reaction was instantaneous. Taking him unawares, she swiped his feet from under and pinned him down with her elbow. His mouth were open in shock and—

"Wha-?"

_The puff of smoke should have erased his memories of this_, Momo thought.

Device that was a few inches away from his face should have erased all the memories of their meeting right now and replaced them with some other memories. However, that didn't happen. Momo found herself looking at the small swinging _duck head_ in horror as Weasley was looking at her in shock when he should have been unconscious.

_It isn't working._

Her Kikanshinki wasn't working.

It couldn't possibly be… _empty_?

Her horrorstruck face turned even more so when she realized that it was exactly it. The last time she'd changed it had been shortly before Toshiro-kun became a Captain and there were only so many false memories implanted in it, not to mention that she really didn't go to the Living World very often. Not even those things could last forever. Besides, she'd had other Kikanshinki that she was supposed to use on Dumbledore because his memories weren't immediate, that she hadn't even thought of it before.

Unfortunately, excuses weren't going to fix the issue she had ahead of her now.

"Oh, _no_…"

"What the bloody hell was that for?"

"_Just knock him out. He'll probably think he was dreaming after he wakes up," _suggested Tobiume.

_I can't do that! It'd be suspicious if I left him lying here!_

"_Then how about just taking him to the Gryffindor Tower, then he'd be sure he was dreaming."_

_And how do you suggest I get inside? I don't even know which tower it is yet! No, I can't do that!_

"I'm honestly so, _so_, sorry…"

"Stop being sorry and stop trashing me in the process! Are you off your rockers or what?"

Momo, whose mouth was already half-open in an attempt of a protest, shut instantly. She said slowly, "Let me just take you to the hospital wing, Weasley-kun… You may have been hurt… oh, I can't believe I did this! I'm sorry!"

She threw his arm over her shoulder despite his protests and started half-dragging him to the hospital wing before she remembered she couldn't possibly walk in there the way she was. She was just lucky no one else had gotten to see her. Yet.

"Hey, my broom is still there!" Weasley protested.

"Oh!" Momo released him, ran back and got the broom, then began dragging him towards the hospital wing again. "Please tell me if I take a wrong turn. I've only been exploring a little bit and I've just seen it in passing."

"Whoever even said I wanted to go to the hospital wing? I'm fine!"

"Oh… Still, I…"

"And what's with the outfit and the sword?"

"Ehh… training, I guess. It's been a while since I've practiced Zanjutsu so I thought maybe…"

"Practiced _what_?"

"Zanjutsu, the sword arts."

"And you get to have your own sword?"

"_That insolent…!"_

"Well, it's not a sword," Momo quickly said, not willing to listen to her Zanpakuto's rage. Somehow, all the Zanpakuto hated being addressed as swords, while they totally didn't mind calling themselves that way. Momo didn't really want to get into _that_ particular logic just now. "The name is Zanpakuto, actually, but yeah, something like that. Are you sure you're all right, Weasley-kun?"

"I'm _fine_. Just… try not to tell anyone about this…"

Finally, Momo forced herself to look at him. He wasn't looking at her. In fact, his eyes were on the broomstick that he was gripping tightly. _I wonder what's that all about…_

"Why?" she asked faintly. "What were you doing?"

"I… err… I wanted to try out for the Quidditch team…"

"So you were out practicing!" Momo gasped.

"Err… trying to get out of the castle, more like, but yeah…"

"Oh, I'm so sorry… I… all right, I won't tell anyone. As long as this stays secret between us, okay?"

"Wait, what?"

"I won't tell anyone what you're doing," Momo said, her mind racing. "I'll even cover up for you if you need it. But you mustn't tell anyone what I did tonight, all right? Not a soul, okay?"

Leaned on her shoulder as he was, his face was only inches from hers when he turned around to stare at her. Only then did Momo realize that he was taller than her for over five inches. Somehow, that just served to unnerve her more than it possibly should have. Not even the fact that he was so close had disturbed her that much.

"All… right…" he choked out, his ears turning a bit red and quickly he looked away. "But it's not like I even know what you were doing," he added under his breath.

"Uh… doesn't matter! Well, as long as it's all right…"

"Can you stop dragging me to the hospital wing? I told you already. I'm fine."

"Oh…" Momo nodded and stopped.

"Thanks." It was a bit more sarcastic than he probably intended it, but neither paid much attention.

"Well, good luck on the try-outs," Momo said finally, her head lowered.

"Yeah… thanks, I guess… Hey, are you going to try-out for the Hufflepuff team? With that much strength, you'd probably be an avid Beater."

She smiled faintly, "Thank you, Ron-kun… I'll try… one day… maybe." She scratched the back of her head. "Well, I've gotta go now, you see. Ja ne!"

She escaped before he even got a chance to say anything. _Well hopefully, he knows what's good for him and he'll keep quiet,_ she thought while she Shunpo-ed up the stairs leading towards the Astronomy Tower. Damage control: successful.

"_Personally, I think he's got a crush on you," _Tobiume chided.

Momo rolled her eyes at the thought. _Please, not this again… you said the same about Abarai-kun, Kira-kun, Kurosaki-san, Jinta-san and even Urahara-san._

"_I know, but this time I'm definitely right! I know it!"_

Momo shook her head as she settled in the darkest corner of the Astronomy tower to wait for Kuchiki-san. She had no idea whatsoever what time it was and the dark cloudy night sky wasn't giving her any indications either. _I hope she'll be here soon, _she thought tiredly.

Because Momo knew; if she dared to move even a single step from there before Kuchiki-san arrived, someone was going see her. She was just lucky like that.

"_Oh, come on! Don't ignore me now. It's all right if the Weasel boy likes you. Hey, it's actually a good thing, since Ichi-kun will have better competition and therefore will be likelier to show off his best attributes!"_

On the other hand, spending two hours all on her own with an insane Zanpakuto in her head was probably not a good thing for Momo's sanity that had already taken enough damage to last for several lifetimes.

_Say, Tobiume, what do you think about some training?_

"_Training?" _Tobiume asked curiously.

Momo smiled. Had anyone else knowing her gotten to see the smile, they probably would have been thinking that Momo had been possessed by something frightening. As it was, Tobiume was the only one who got a chance when Momo entered her Inner world, and the little princess couldn't help but feel proud at the purple gleam in her wielder's eyes.

"This is going to be interesting," she said.

Momo's smile only stood firm. "Get ready."

"Ready when you are."

And at the same time; "GO!"

* * *

Kuchiki-san arrived, Tobiume supplied, two and a half hours later. She was in the standard Shinigami uniform, however with several changes. Apparently, she had recently started wearing fingerless white tekkou, which extended above her elbows. The badge over her upper left arm gave the whole new impression of the girl whom Momo knew only briefly so far.

Momo had, only several minutes before that, returned from her Inner World, completely exhausted, sporting many cuts, bruises and even her forehead was bleeding severely, but she was feeling good. Actually, she was feeling much better than how she'd felt ever since she'd left Soul Society.

"Hello, Kuchiki-san," she greeted in Japanese.

"Hinamori-fukutaichō," Kuchiki-san nodded respectively. Then she noticed the collection of injuries. "What happened?"

"Don't worry, I was just getting some training," Momo said with a smile. "There's no need for that honorific now, by the way. We're both of the same rank."

"A-ah… you're right." Kuchiki-san smiled a little. "Is there a reason you've requested this meeting?"

"Well, yes, now that you've mentioned it. There're a few things I wanted to talk to you about," Momo said. "First of all, I just recently heard about the suspicion that Soifon-taichō's memories were swapped and I'd like to know if it has been confirmed."

"I… yes," Kuchiki-san responded quickly. "The official transcript arrived this morning. Kurotsuchi-taichō confirmed that underneath the fake memories, the real ones still exist, but it is unclear on what had been done about it and if it can be reversed at all, but since Soifon-taichō seems to be having flashbacks, it is likely that her memories will return at one point."

"I see…" Momo said thoughtfully. "I'll look into it to see if magic could have done it, and I'll also tell Kurosaki-san to help out of if he'd like. It's not a problem."

Kuchiki-san nodded. "Anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"Oh, yes, of course. I mean, is there anything about when Toshiro-kun will be coming back?"

"Not yet, but Hitsugaya-taichō should be back by Monday," Kuchiki-san informed her.

"I see. That's what Yoruichi-san said, too. Oh well…" Momo smiled faintly. "And… do you know anything about… how my division is faring? I'm… a bit worried."

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Kuchiki-san informed her. "Komamura-taichō is handling it well for now. No doubt they miss you already, but everyone seems as if they want their Vice-Captain to get stronger."

"Ah, that's good to hear. Sachiko-chan is probably going to get much stronger by the time I get back. She always wanted to become a Vice-Captain… I just sort of beat her to it."

Kuchiki-san said nothing, of course, so Momo went for brightening up the conversation some.

"So, when did you get it, Kuchiki-san? I know it was only the matter of time, but I'm still curious."

"Oh, I was called back to Soul Society shortly after you and Ichigo disappeared from Urahara's," replied Kuchiki-san nervously.

"I see. Great for you, Kuchiki-san. You are the best person they could have chosen for that role."

A small, but definitely sad smile decorated Kuchiki's face. The two Vice Captains remained sitting in silence, each drifting in their own thoughts and worries, but both well aware – and thoroughly contented – that this was a beginning of one important friendship.

"Oh, and Kuchiki-san, could I ask you for a favor," Momo said when Kuchiki moved to leave.

"Is something the matter?"

"Err… I need a new Kikanshinki… my old one is now unfortunately empty…"

"H-Hinamori-san! That object is crucial for this mission! What would you have done if-?"

"No, not that one. I've gotten a special one from Urahara-san because normal Kikanshinki erases only the immediate memories, and we need to erase a whole load of memories older than six months. Naturally, I'd need a modified version!" Here, she started blushing. "But, I also need the normal one, just in case something happens that I have to erase… and unfortunately, mine is confirmedly empty now. So, please Kuchiki-san, could you do that for me? I really don't want to get in trouble. I'll pay you back as soon as I can!"

Kuchiki shook her head. "All right," she said. "Be careful."

Momo nodded. "Thank you, Kuchiki-san."

Kuchiki Rukia smiled briefly and Shunpo-ed away.

_I better get back to exploring, _Momo thought. Seconds later, she was back downstairs, going from corridor to corridor wondering which way she should ever go back to her dorm. She couldn't trace Yoruichi-san's Reiatsu because she was at Kurosaki-san's dorm and there were too many signatures in the building for her to focus on those that she knew were the Hufflepuffs and get back to her common room.

Momo took a deep, deep breath. _I hope I'll find the way back until morning._

Otherwise Susan, who was already suspicious enough, would become even more suspicious.

Tobiume's chuckling in the back of her mind did not help any.

* * *

Trailer for the next chapter:

_"Err…"_

_"You… aren't going to tell anyone… what you know?"_


	9. Chapter 8: Suspicions

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo [who has done an awesome work with this newest chapter!] and Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Say, anybody else here thinking Masaki is badass? Damn, what she did was awesome. Anyway, let's get on the chapter now.

* * *

Chapter 8: Suspicions

By Friday, Ichigo had joined the ninety percent of the student body, wishing for the hell week (how it was deemed by the Weasley twins and soon enough by the most of the school) to end. By lunch, he decided his weekend was going to start a bit early.

Hermione did not approve.

"You _must_ go! Do you want to get in even more trouble?" she pestered him during lunch after he'd mentioned he wouldn't be showing up at Defense.

"If I go, something out there is going to blow," Ichigo informed her.

"Well, we could use something exciting today," Ron said eagerly.

"I'm not going to blow up a classroom for your amusement, Weasley," Ichigo stated.

"Why not? It's Umbridge!"

"Maybe, Ronald, that is because he doesn't want to be expelled!" Hermione piped up.

"Come on! He's broken enough rules already and all he got was a slap on the wrist! It's not like he'd be expelled! Besides, he only walked out of her class once!"

"And is planning not to appear on this one!"

Ignoring whatever the other two continued talking about, Ichigo pushed his empty plate away, and picking up his bag, stood up from the table.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ron asked immediately.

"Library. If I'm not going to attend class, then I'm not going to waste the time either," Ichigo informed them. He left before either could make a protest.

"What's up with him? It's like he's living in the library or something," he heard Ron grumble and Ichigo couldn't really deny it.

Every minute of his free time he spent at a secluded corner in the library, either listing spells he didn't know, trying out some of them or researching stuff tied to defense and dark arts. He had a feeling he may have progressed a little on the Spiritual Awareness department, but he couldn't be sure. However, the Hogwarts ghosts, such as Nick and even Binns, were still completely see-through.

Ichigo took a deep breath as he settled in his secluded corner and immediately began gathering some books.

He hated this, absolutely detested being pinned down and forced to read all the time to the stuff that were helpful only zero point five percent of the time, but he wasn't about to quit, either.

Ichigo was aware that his growth rate had been abnormally fast ever since Urahara had gotten involved with it. Hell, he'd seen reactions of the Shinigami when he had acquired Bankai in less than three days and then beaten Byakuya. No one cloud blame him if he thought this progress now was abysmally slow. After all, he was used to some quicker power-ups and this was dragging on for almost a week and he was pretty sure he'd only made some miniscule progress.

Well, he'd be damned if he quit now.

Running a hand over his face, he went back to reading _Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charms_. He was at the second paragraph only and yet he had this incredible urge to yawn.

* * *

Much to nobody's surprise, Ichigo did not show up at Defense and neither did he arrive in time for dinner. Hermione of all people was constantly on edge, nearly jumping up every time someone entered the Great Hall, but there was neither hide nor hair of the orange-haired teenager with a tendency to scowl.

But as she didn't say anything – Harry and Ron were talking about Quidditch – no one reprimanded her about it or even made a big deal of it, so in the end she just settled in for a talk with Ginny regarding her impression of Momo.

"Hey, Harry, come on. Let's go!"

"Oh, right! See you later!" Harry said, waving away to his friends and went to join the rest of the Quidditch team as they headed out towards the pitch to organize the tryouts.

It was only several minutes later after they were gone that Ron stalked up on his feet, waved to Hermione and left the Gryffindor table without saying a single word. He was rushing out of the common room with his new broom and he was quite faster than normal, when down at the Entrance Hall he nearly crashed with a bunch of Hufflepuff girls.

"Sorry, 'scuse me! Getting through!"

He skidded to a stop when he saw Momo Hinamori and Susan Bones standing right in front of him. His face suddenly felt heated.

"Uh… hi."

"Weasley-kun?"

"Err… sorry, gotta go."

"Quidditch tryouts?" Susan asked.

"Yep."

Momo smiled. "Good luck."

If his face hadn't already been red, it sure was now. "T-thanks," Ron mumbled out and stormed passed them. It wouldn't be good to be late.

"What is up with him?" Susan asked curiously.

"You know, I'd like to know too," Momo replied, mirroring Susan's expression.

Susan gave her one very odd look that Hinamori didn't quite know how to take.

In the meantime, Ron was running towards the Quidditch pitch, sighing in relief when he noticed that he was most definitely not late. It was certainly a relief, he reckoned. Being late probably never left a good impression.

When he arrived, most of the team turned out to be trying to organize a bunch of second and third years. Harry was there, with Angelina and Alicia, showing them where to go. Fred and George were at the side with Katie, sniggering at something profoundly. It occurred to Ron that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't all that great of an idea, but he wasn't going to give up now. Not when Harry had already seen him standing there. Not when he already got the new broom for becoming a prefect.

Mentally, Ron cursed. _This is not going to end well._

In the end, it turned out he was right, for the most part. It did not end well. It ended in the best imaginable way it ever could have, at least for him. He was a part of the Quidditch team, he was the Keeper. His best friend was right next to him, cheering him on as they were heading back for the common room where twins said they were going to throw a party. And really, it couldn't have ended better.

Well it could have, if somehow it had turned out that Umbridge got sacked sometime during the tryouts, but that was beside the point.

They were going up the stairs from the fifth floor, Ron for about fifteenth time that evening repeating how he'd made that amazing save.

"And Katie was just so fast! There was no way I could have made it, but I _had_!" he was saying enthusiastically. "That flip was so amazing! For a second I was thinking I was actually falling!"

Only a lack of response made him realize that Harry was no longer next to him. Surprised, Ron took a few turns, only to see Harry clutching the safety railing, hissing under his breath, several steps down.

"Harry!"

Ron immediately went down to his friend. "Hey, Harry? Harry? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Harry replied, quickly straightening.

"Noth—"

"It's just, my scar hurt," he muttered.

"But You-Know-Who can't possibly be here," Ron said, mostly trying to assure himself of it.

"Of course not," Harry said. "It's been hurting on and off the whole summer, but he couldn't be anywhere near Privet Drive or Grimmauld Place, no? Come on, let's just get to the common room."

Ron reluctantly agreed.

By the time they got to the common room, the party had already started and after only several steps, the two got separated. Harry soon gave up trying to track down Ron, instead heading towards the more secluded part of the common room. Hermione, Neville and Ichigo were there, the former working on those hats for the house elves and the latter two were bent over a book, both looking frustrated.

"Hey," Harry said, slumping in the seat beside Hermione.

"Oh, hi, Harry," Hermione said. "Tryouts went well, I see."

Harry shrugged noncommittally. He was tired and the sudden pain in his scar hadn't really fixed that and normally he would tell Hermione all about it, but the company at the moment wasn't the best, so he held back.

"Yeah… Ron's the Keeper, now," he informed her.

"Is he any good?" she asked.

"I guess. I mean, he wasn't the best, but Angelina wouldn't have anyone who isn't dedicated, so I guess it's the best we could find."

Had he been a little less tired, he probably would have worded it differently, but as it was, he wasn't really in the mood to talk about it.

"Say, Hermione, could you—"

He didn't manage to finish what he was trying to say as the Weasley twins joined them, both grinning from ear to ear.

"Where'd you go, Harry? You still haven't gotten your Butterbeer!"

"Thanks, but I'm really not all for it right now."

He was expecting some persuasion of sorts when both the twins looked at him a bit disappointedly, then sighed.

"Fine, we'll let you off the hook today. The Hell Week's taking its tool. George?"

"Yes, Fred?"

"Thinking what I'm thinking?"

Looking the way his twin was looking, the twin that had to be George smirked. "Of course, oh brother of mine."

And in several quick steps they were standing right next to Ichigo, each grabbing him by one arm then forcing him to stand up. Ichigo's reaction could only be described as '_now what?_' though what he said was a little bit different.

"_Now_ what do you want?"

"Just treating you to a Butterbeer," Fred said innocently.

"Yeah, like that just-a-cream yesterday?"

"No. _That _was our special treat. This is just, you know, for the kicks." Fred smirked. "So you really ate it?"

"Of course not," Ichigo said as if it was obvious as he shoved the two off him. "Neville did, though. He doesn't make that good of a canary, really."

The twins grinned. "Any way we can trick you into eating it, just to see if your canary form will be the same color as your hair?"

Ichigo's brow twitched. "No."

"Well, doesn't hurt to try. Right, Fred?"

"Of course, George," Fred nodded immediately.

"I'm definitely going to hurt you if you try," Ichigo grumbled.

"Oh, seriously, just take the Butterbeer already. We didn't poison it," Fred said with a sigh.

"Should I really put it past you?"

The twins exchanged a grin. "Well, no. But it's nothing harmful."

"Yeah, like turning someone into a canary isn't harmful to their ego," Ichigo said under his breath. "Sorry, but there's no way I'm doing it."

"Can we offer Skiving Snackboxes then? It gives you a perfectly legitimate excuse to get out of class," George informed him.

"Hell no," Ichigo said. As an afterthought, he added, "What do those do?"

If the twins were grinning before, it was nothing compared to how they were grinning now. And as they started introducing Ichigo to their newest products, Harry looked at Hermione from the side.

"You're not going to do anything about it?"

She frowned. "I should. I really should. But I don't think Ichigo of all people would appreciate anyone telling him what to do, even if it is for his own good."

"Momo might give it a try," Harry pointed out. He quickly added, "Not saying it would work, of course."

Hermione just shook her head and focused on her woolen hats.

"Well, seeing as I really can't finish this on my own… I'm off to bed, guys. Good night," Neville said.

"Good night, Neville," Hermione said, then looked at Harry thoughtfully. "Did you want to ask something, before they showed up?"

"Oh, right…" Harry ran a hand through his hair then told her about his scar. As he expected, Hermione advised him to talk to Dumbledore, but he wasn't about to even consider it, not since the Headmaster hadn't bothered speaking – or even looking at him – ever since the end of the last year.

He decided he'd write a letter to Sirius in the morning and then observed the rest of the common room until he nearly fell asleep, what could have been from five minutes to three hours later.

"I'm going to bed, all right?" he told Hermione as he got to his feet.

"Oh—I should be going, too. I'm so-so-so tired," she said with a yawn and quickly moved to take her stuff. "I want to make some more hats tomorrow. Listen, you can help me if you like, it's quite fun, I'm getting better, I can do patterns and bobbles and all sorts of things now."

Harry looked into her face, which was shining with glee, and tried to look as though he was vaguely tempted by this offer.

"Err... no, I don't think I will, thanks," he said. "Err—not tomorrow. I've got loads of homework to do..."

And he traipsed off to the boys' stairs, leaving her looking slightly disappointed.

* * *

Ichigo managed to get to his bed only after hearing the whole story on the Skiving Snackboxes from the twins and while he was tempted to buy the sweets immediately, he was pretty sure that not _everything _was as good as they were making it out to be, so he made a deal with them. Since he was going back to Japan at the end of the school year, he was going to take a bunch of those along, see if he can help them get on the market there and get the Snackboxes for free. Not ever did he thought he'd get off with a deal like that, but the twins even promised him a discount on their every product if his little scheme worked and Ichigo would be stupid to turn that down.

Somehow, he seemed to have a knack for trading business. Hopefully, it wasn't just Urahara rubbing off on him.

Sometime in the morning, he heard Potter getting out of bed, but Ichigo could not for the hell of it force himself to open his eyes and look at the clock to see what time it was and thinking about what Potter was doing on a Saturday morning had not been even near the forefront of his exhausted mind.

When he'd staggered out for breakfast later, all he could do was eat as least as possible and not speak a word – not even to answer questions directed at him. Drinking only two butterbeers on an empty stomach did leave a mark. He wasn't feeling all that well, but he was sure he'd die if he didn't get something to eat first.

Maybe that was why he had been in the best position to listen through the whole conversation between the three Gryffindors at breakfast, not that he was really trying.

"Morning," Harry said brightly to the three of them as he joined them at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

"Morning," Ichigo muttered sleepily.

"What are you looking so pleased about?" Ron asked.

"Err ... Quidditch later," said Harry happily, pulling a large platter of bacon and eggs towards him. Ichigo was wondering briefly if he was seriously going to eat all of it and the lone thought made him feel nauseous.

"Oh ... yeah ..." Ron put down the piece of toast he was eating and took a large swig of pumpkin juice. Then he said, "Listen ... you don't fancy going out a bit earlier with me, do you? Just to-er-give me some practice before training? So I can, you know, get my eye in a bit."

"Yeah, OK."

"Look, I don't think you should," said Hermione seriously. "You're both really behind on homework as it—"

But she broke off; the morning post was arriving and one of the owls was soaring towards her, landing dangerously close to the sugar bowl. It held out a leg and Hermione pushed a knut into its leather pouch, took the newspaper, and scanned the front page critically as the owl took off.

"Anything interesting?" asked Ron.

"No," she sighed, "just some guff about the bass player in the Weird Sisters getting married."

Hermione opened the paper and disappeared behind it.

"Bass player of _what_?" Ichigo asked, but Hermione didn't seem to be listening.

Only a second later, she said suddenly, "Wait a moment. Oh no... Sirius!"

Whatever relaxed atmosphere existed around the three that morning was shattered in an instant.

"What's happened?" Harry asked, snatching at the paper so violently it ripped down the middle, with him and Hermione each holding one half.

"'The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer-"

Ichigo's ears perked up. _Mass murderer? What does a mass murderer have to do with a bunch of school kids?_

"—... blah blah blah ...is currently hiding in London!'" Hermione read from her half in low voice.

"Lucius Malfoy, I'll bet anything," Harry said in low, furious whisper. "He did recognize Sirius on the platform."

"What?" Ron asked, looking alarmed. "You didn't say—"

"Shh!" snapped the other two.

Ichigo really, really got a bad feeling for a moment, but then Hermione continued reading as if she hadn't even realized he was close enough to hear.

"... 'Ministry warns wizarding community that Black is very dangerous ... killed thirteen people ... broke out of Azkaban ...' the usual rubbish," she concluded, laying down her half of the paper and looking at Harry and Ron. "Well, he just won't be able to leave the house again, that's all," she whispered. "Dumbledore did warn him not to."

Ichigo hoped the drama was finally over, but then Harry flattened down the piece of paper he was holding

"Look at this!" he said.

"I've got all the robes I want," muttered Ron.

"No, look ... this little piece here ..."

Ron and Hermione bent closer to read whatever it was. Several seconds later, they straightened.

"Sturgis Podmore?" Ron said slowly. "He's that bloke who looks like his head's been thatched, isn't he? He's one of the Ord—"

"Ron, shh!" said Hermione, casting a terrified look around them. It was then that her eyes met with Ichigo's and her mouth dropped open.

Ichigo immediately started waving his hands. "Err…"

By now both Ron and Harry were looking at him as if they were in some sort of a shock.

"You… aren't going to tell anyone… what you know?" Hermione asked uncertainly.

Ichigo just stared at her. "I know what?" he asked. "He shook his head a bit to clear it. "I don't… hell, even if I told this to anyone, I wouldn't know what you're talking about. It's not like I care."

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have been eavesdropping in the first place," Potter said venomously.

"I wasn't," Ichigo pointed out. "I was just eating my breakfast, but then _somebody _mentioned a mass-murderer, so how can anyone expect me to ignore _that_?"

"Point," Ron muttered.

"You… you swear you won't be telling a soul about this, yes?" Hermione asked.

"It's not like I'm a gossip," Ichigo said. "And I don't even care what you do. That's your business, not mine."

"All right," Hermione said, sounding largely uncertain of it, but she got the other two to lay off.

However, it was obvious that nothing was all right. Whatever discussion had them so flustered was now over and they turned back to their meals. Ichigo didn't miss the looks they have exchanged among each other, but it's not like he could blame them. Some things, he knew all too well, were not for everybody's ears.

So he did what he usually did. He left them to it. As soon as his breakfast was finished, he did the most intelligent thing he could and, with a dismissive wave, he left the Hall.

The rest of the day he spent finishing his homework with Neville and the other Gryffindors and by the evening, the others gave up on finishing, so Ichigo focused on practicing some of the spells in one of the classrooms, though that wasn't working out very well. In the meantime, he had no idea where Hinamori was at and by the time he got back to the common room where Potter and Weasley were in a middle of an argument with Hermione.

The argument broke off immediately, but before either of the three got a chance to say anything, an owl delivery stopped them. Ichigo just gave them a quick nod, left his stuff upstairs and then walked to the Great Hall to get some dinner.

He entered to see Hinamori chatting cheerfully with the Hufflepuff girls and most of them were having a giggling fit. Deciding he could get his dinner after talking to her, he walked to their table.

"Oi, Hinamori!"

She, along with the rest of the giggling gang, looked up at him.

"Hi, Kurosaki-san!" Hinamori greeted.

A few of the girls said their own hi's, before looking away and getting into another giggling fit.

Ichigo dignifiedly ignored them.

"Is something the matter?" Hinamori asked after seeing the expression on his face.

"No, not really," he admitted. In Japanese, he added, "Just wanted to ask about those memory charms you were looking for. I have nothing better to do right now so I thought I'd help out."

"Oh…" Hinamori's face was blank for several seconds before she nodded. "Well I was thinking of going through that tomorrow," she said in Japanese, "but now that you've mentioned it, it's not a bad idea. Just try finding spells that include replacing one memory with another. Much like Kikanshinki."

"That thing you have?" he asked. "With the duck-head? Replacing absurd memories with something equally absurd?"

"That's the one," Hinamori confirmed with a chuckle.

"Fine," he said in English. "Ja ne."

"What were you talking about?" he heard one of the girls ask as soon as he had gotten several steps away. Others started asking their own questions, but before long it all turned into a confusing drawl and Ichigo had neither will nor patience to pay attention.

So after finishing dinner he had once again to get to the library.

Damn, it's like it was going to become his second common room or something.

* * *

"Ichigo, where were you?" Hermione asked the moment she spotted the said teen entering the common room.

"Library," he said shortly as he slumped into the armchair next to hers.

For some reason, Hermione noticed, he'd been in a rather bad mood for the most of the day.

During the first few days it had been very difficult to understand anything about him, Hermione reckoned. He was brash, short-tempered and always scowling and it all gave out an impression that he was constantly in a bad mood. However, Hermione learned better over the last three days. The earlier description of him was how he was when he was normal, perhaps even fine or in a good mood.

The bad mood usually was based upon a more prominent scowl, use of rather short sentences and disappearing whenever he felt like it.

"But you've already been there," said Ron, if a bit accusingly.

Ichigo shrugged in response. "I needed more material."

"You could have told us before disappearing like that," Harry said in low voice.

Hermione had managed to convince Harry and Ron to treat him normally even despite what happened that morning, seeing as it _was_ their fault, and aside from the bit about Sirius, it's not as if he heard anything else. _Or cared,_ her subconscious added.

Ichigo said nothing, his nose stuck in the Potions book.

Hermione frowned over that. Ichigo seemed to be handling potions real well so far and his potion in their last Potions lesson had been second only to hers – aside from the fact that he'd finished it a little after her, it had still been done right. Of course, Snape hadn't really taken that with pleasure but it isn't as if anyone was expecting him to.

Truthfully, Hermione had been expecting him to make a fuss of things, with the way he had treated Umbridge in their first class and seeing as he had been already in detention with Snape once.

"You really surprised me there," she had told him. "I was expecting you to lash out at Snape any second."

"Yeah, why didn't you do that?" Ron had asked.

"Ronald!"

"Geez, drop it, will you?" Ichigo had told them. "That's pretty much the treatment I get at home – if only a bit harsher. Not that it matters, really."

Harry and Ron had later made a whole interrogation out of it, in the meantime insulting professor Snape in any way they could, but Ichigo never seemed to join them. In fact, he'd only shrugged and said that it didn't matter and that there were more important things than whether a professor liked him or not.

Hermione hadn't felt very thrilled after hearing that.

But of course, she shouldn't have expected anything less. After that confrontation with Umbridge, Hermione had expected him to get in another argument with her during their next lesson – or just start ordering around both her and the other professors. She thought it was his element – the way he preferred doing things: being in charge.

Instead, she wasn't sure how to take it that he didn't even _want_ to attend her lessons anymore and there appeared to be no way she could get him to change his mind.

Ichigo Kurosaki was a complete mystery to her.

And that morning—she wasn't sure what to make of it.

At first, she had been absolutely certain that he was listening in on their conversation during breakfast. It horrified her that she had been silly enough to miss that he was sitting right there where he was able to hear _everything_, but when she looked at him, she had seen realization dawn on him like a brick wall, but then he'd said that he didn't care and that it wasn't his business.

She didn't buy it even for a moment.

"You could stop ignoring us, you know," Harry said suddenly, breaking Hermione out of her thoughts.

For a second she had been convinced he was talking to her, but then she found him looking at Ichigo and she couldn't help wondering what—

"I'm not ignoring you, Potter," Ichigo replied without batting an eyelash.

"You aren't, are you? And here I was sure you were here, not even looking at me after I talked to you."

_Uh-oh_. Harry, just as much as Ichigo, had been in a bad mood the whole day after the Quidditch practise that went wrong. Hermione bit her lip, wondering if there was any way to prevent an oncoming row.

"Sorry if I'm too busy doing homework," Ichigo said.

His voice was genuinely disinterested which only seemed to stir up Harry's—well, whatever he was feeling at the moment. However, before Harry could say anything, Ichigo said to Hermione, "Does this make any sense to you?"

It was an instantaneous reaction.

Without thinking, Hermione took the proffered book from his hand, reading through the whole page. It was turned on the page with instructions for brewing Draught of Peace and she wanted to ask what the whole point of it was, when it dawned to her.

"_Read the third line, Kurosaki."_

"_Err – add powdered moonstone, stir three times counter-clockwise, simmer seven minutes then add three drops of syrup of hellebore."_

"_Wrong, Kurosaki. Now instead of looking down on your own faulty notes, read through the third line and tell me what you did wrong."_

_Several seconds of silence, then, "Two drops of syrup. Damn."_

She read through it again, before shortly saying, "It doesn't."

"That's what I thought, too," Ichigo said and scratched the back of his head. "It unnerved me at first, you see. I still have the edited notes and when I took the book this stuff made no sense at all. So I thought maybe he was either giving us the wrong instructions, or the better ones."

Hermione opened her mouth, but then promptly closed them. She then asked, "What do you mean, _better_? Wrong I can understand to some extent, but better?"

"As in, he'd found a better way to brew the potion and instead of telling us which page in the book to open – because everyone _must_ have the book – he puts the instructions on board and doesn't mention the book at all," Ichigo explained.

"Excuse me, but _what_ are you talking about?" asked Ron.

For the time being, Hermione ignored him.

"Perhaps... perhaps you are right," she told Ichigo. "It has never occurred to me to compare the notes with the book. I always thought he was just doing it on a whim... I never thought he had his own instructions on doing it." And it took her much to say it, but, "No wonder he's the Potions Master."

Ichigo, however, did not look satisfied with that conclusion. "In just what sort of an asylum have I landed in?" she heard him say before he stuffed his things in the bag and told them he was going to bed.

She didn't see him heading for bed, though. She was pretty sure he actually left the common room.

"Are you going to tell us what that was all about?" Ron demanded before she could ponder on it.

"Just... it seems that professor Snape has a bit of a unique... way of teaching," Hermione whispered in the end. If they'd understood now – and she was sure that at least Harry had – there'd only be another second before—

Harry had slid off his chair on to his knees and was now crouching on the singed and threadbare hearthrug, gazing into the flames.

"Er-Harry?" said Ron uncertainly, his attention now away from Hermione. "Why are you down there?"

"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire," said Harry, seemingly completely blasé about it.

"Sirius's head?" Hermione repeated. "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too-Sirius!"

She gasped, gazing at the fire; Ron dropped his quill. There in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius's head, long dark hair failing around his grinning face.

"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared," he said. "I've been checking every hour."

"You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry said, half-laughing.

"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear. By the way, who was that orange head just now?"

"You mean Ichigo? The transfer?" asked Ron.

"But what if you'd been seen?" said Hermione anxiously, not giving anyone a chance to speak.

"Well, I think a girl-first-year, by the look of her-might've get a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry," Sirius said hastily, as Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth, "I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly-shaped log or something."

"But, Sirius, this is taking an awful risk—" Hermione began.

"You sound like Molly," said Sirius. "This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code-and codes are breakable."

Hermione, at the same time as Ron, turned to look at Harry. She wanted to ask what that was all about, but then decided they had enough time for that later. Instead, she rounded back on Sirius.

"Sirius! If you had appeared there only a minute before, I'm sure Ichigo would have seen you!" she said accusingly.

"The transfer?" Sirius said, a thoughtful expression crossing over his face. It was there for only a fleeting second before he broke out into a grin. "Nah, he's OK. Boy had been staying at Remus's flat when he first got here and if Remus says he's OK, then he's OK."

"What'd you mean, he'd been staying with Lupin?" repeated Harry.

"Remember how Remus hadn't been around much during the last week of the holidays?" Sirius asked. When the three nodded, he continued, "Well, that's the reason. Dumbledore asked him to host the two transfers that were coming over from Japan. He'll be ecstatic to know at least one is in Gryffindor. He'd said it'd be regretful if Ravenclaw got both of them."

"Ravenclaw? You mean, Lupin reckoned they'd be Sorted in Ravenclaw?" Ron repeated in disbelief.

"He first joked he was having his bets on the girl being either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, then said something about that Ichigo guy and how he's a definite Ravenclaw. I think he later changed his mind on the girl."

Ron choked. Harry got a coughing fit.

Hermione frowned a little. "Well, he guessed one thing," she said thoughtfully. "Momo is a Hufflepuff."

"I must remember to tell him later," Sirius said. "And this Ichigo guy's a Gryffindor. Aw... Guess even Moony can make a mistake." He actually seemed amused at that.

"Whatever made him think Ichigo of all people would be a Ravenclaw?" Ron asked in disbelief. "He's the furthest from a Ravenclaw I've ever seen! Well, other than the fact that he seemed to be living in the library these days."

"How should I know?" said Sirius, turning to Harry. "Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. We'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed-your scar."

The group nodded.

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think its anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?"

The talk then turned on the subject of Harry's scar and later Hagrid and Umbridge and even Percy's letter, but while Hermione did pay attention to that, her mind was racing on another track. Ichigo had been staying with professor Lupin. Professor Lupin thought Ichigo to be a definite Ravenclaw, but instead he's in Gryffindor and no trace of the thirst for knowledge Ravenclaws usually possessed, but most of all – Ichigo obviously hated authority.

And Momo—should she even start? She may have an aversion of Potions, but she was just as confusing as Ichigo. Momo had always appeared to know what was going on. Both Ichigo and her denied being close multiple times, but one could see them together at least once a day even if they were in separate houses. And why would Dumbledore ask professor Lupin to host them, if it had already been cutting in his Order duties that much?

Something didn't add up in that story, Hermione realized with sudden clarity. They had arrived too quickly, too suddenly and too mysteriously. _They have taken residence at Hogwarts but neither of them treats it as a school – or at least Ichigo doesn't and even Momo seems to be the slacking type_. _They don't mind getting in detention and even though Ichigo heard when I read that Sirius was a mass murderer he didn't appear to care, other than genuine curiosity that was quite a bit of an understatement when somebody usually mentions a mass murderer._

_But... why?_

If she were the one to study aboard for a year, she would have been worried if someone mentioned a mass murderer running free. Ichigo both heard it _and_ said it didn't matter.

Perhaps professor Lupin had told him... but that seemed as unlikely as Hermione growing another head.

Or are the transfers being pulled on both sides for some reasons? Perhaps professor Dumbledore wanted them on their side in this political battle, but so did the Ministry?

More and more theories stalked Hermione after she settled in her bed before she finally managed to fall asleep later that night, after Sirius said his goodbyes. Somehow, she knew that the dawn would bring no satisfying answers to her thousand questions.

* * *

Ichigo gripped the pen he was holding, a part of him hoping that he wasn't going to break it. It was Monday morning. He was tired. He was moody. He had a bad feeling that this Monday, much like the last one, wasn't going to go smoothly.

And it started out the moment he got down for breakfast.

He hadn't even gotten in the Great Hall when Hinamori intercepted him, asked him to write to Lupin because she forgot and she was still behind on homework – and then she promptly disappeared. Ichigo got the odd feeling that she used a Shunpo, before cursing the fact that now he _had_ to do what she'd asked.

Settling at the Gryffindor table, he'd gotten some parchment and his only pen and started writing the damned letter.

By the time most of those from his year arrived, he only had two solid sentences written.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, with an undertone of suspicion.

"Finishing a letter," Ichigo told her, if only to get her to leave him alone.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Finishing a letter," Ichigo said a bit louder. "Though that is none of your business."

Hermione probably would have objected further had the owl with the newspaper not arrived. Instead, she focused on the _Prophet_, quickly disappearing behind it.

Seriously, sometimes it was as if she was considering the newspaper to be more important than food. Judging by what he knew of them so far, Ichigo was expecting Ron to start calling her on it any second, when she emerged.

"Oh, I don't believe this! Look!"

And she laid the _Prophet_ on the table for everyone in vicinity, including Ichigo and a startled Neville, to see. Ichigo didn't have to force himself to look away from the moving picture of Dolores Umbridge and he was fairly sure he'd hear what it was about soon enough.

"High inquisitor?" said Harry darkly. "What does that mean?"

"Hardly anything good, duh," Ichigo pointed out darkly.

Hermione frowned and read the rest of the article aloud. Ichigo only vaguely listened, as most of what he'd heard already is all he needed to know. When she finished reading, Hermione looked across the table at the others.

"So now we know how we ended up with Umbridge! Fudge passed this 'Educational Decree' and forced her on us! And now he's given her the power to inspect the other teachers!" Hermione was breathing fast and her eyes were very bright. "I can't believe this. It's outrageous!"

"I know it is," said Harry darkly. But a grin was unfurling on Ron's face.

"What?" said Harry and Hermione together, staring at him.

"Oh, I can't wait to see McGonagall inspected," said Ron happily. "Umbridge won't know what's hit her."

He exchanged a look with Ichigo, who snorted in amusement as well at the mental picture. "Knowing McGonagall… I say it'll be… interesting."

"Don't you realize that this is making it much riskier for you?" Hermione rounded on him. "Now that she's got the position higher than a teacher, she may actually expel you!"

"I doubt it," Ichigo said, and meant it. He wasn't sure if the Dumbledore guy would do anything to stop the woman from trying, but he knew that if that were to happen, he'd probably use the situation to his advantage. After all, the old man probably believed he had them in his palm and would do anything to keep them around.

Whatever she'd had intention of telling him, Hermione was interrupted as Parvati and Lavender joined them, both with their own _Prophet _in hands.

"Have you heard?" Parvati asked incredulously.

"That awful woman is now a _high inquisitor_?" Lavender added.

"We really didn't know anything about it until you… enlightened us," Hermione remarked quietly. Louder, she said to others, "Come on. If she's inspecting Binns' class, we better not be late."

Ichigo stayed behind, scribing quickly to finish that letter to Lupin. When he was done, he read it once again just to make sure it was acceptable.

_Hey,_

_You asked us to tell you how we settled in, so here it is._

_Hinamori's thrilled and can't wait to try out a thousand things. She says she likes it here and sends her greetings. She's been sorted in Hufflepuff._

_I'm in Gryffindor and so far this place is weird. I can't navigate the halls even after a week and it usually takes me a while to get where I want. Any ideas how to work on that?_

_Anyways, I hope you got that job._

_Ichigo Kurosaki_

It was short, to the point and the general impression was there so overall, Ichigo was satisfied with how it turned out. He'd get somebody later to take him to the Owlery, but right now he had to get to Binns' class.

_First thing I do when I get my powers back is Konsoing that freak._

With that resolution, he got to class. Turned out Umbridge wasn't inspecting Binns' class, thus, Ichigo was not paying attention, instead opting to take a nap the same way he had the week before. Umbridge neither appeared in Potions, when Snape took it on himself to share around the graded essays.

"The general standard of this homework was abysmal. Most of you would have failed had this been your examination. I expect to see a great deal more effort for this week's essay on the various varieties of venom antidotes, or I shall have to start handing out detentions to those dunces who get a 'D'," Snape informed them.

From the other side of the classroom, a _whisper_ came, "Some people got a 'D'? Ha!"

Ichigo glared at the shiny letter on his essay, wondering if shoving it up Snape's ass would make the grade any better.

_Nah. It'd just cause more trouble than it's worth,_ he concluded as he absently watched Potter glare daggers at his own essay. In his case, the bias was plainly obvious.

If it wasn't going to work, then, Ichigo decided, he'd just make it work. Potions were _not_ difficult, no matter what any other fool said. It required focus and will, and Ichigo had more than enough of will to spite Snape.

Unless if it were about essays, because with that, 'D' was a grade as good as any.

Admittedly, as his essay had only been half-finished when he'd turned it in, was there anything else he could have hoped for?

The Strengthening Solution they were working on that day had turned out remarkably well for Ichigo – who'd been working with Neville this time. It had taken his full attention to stop the other teen from actually blowing them up, but Ichigo was more proud of the fact that he'd made it – and finished his potion before Hermione did.

When he'd taken the potion to the Professor, all he'd gotten was a glare.

The potion wasn't perfect, Ichigo knew. Hermione's was still better as she definitely put in more effort, but at least it wasn't like the last time.

Carelessly, Ichigo glared back.

That resulted in nothing.

"Well, that wasn't as bad as last week, was it?" said Hermione, as they all climbed the steps out of the dungeon and made their way across the Entrance Hall towards lunch. "And the homework didn't go too badly, either, did it?"

When none of the four boys answered, she pressed on, "I mean, all right, I didn't expect the top grade, not if he's marking to OWL standard, but a pass is quite encouraging at this stage, wouldn't you say?"

Harry made a non-committal noise in his throat.

Neville hummed his agreement.

Ichigo wondered if she really took so much pride in her grades as she was making it seem.

"Of course, a lot can happen between now and the exam, we've got plenty of time to improve, but the grades we're getting now are a sort of baseline, aren't they? Something we can build on ..."

Apparently, she did.

They sat down together at the Gryffindor table.

"Obviously, I'd have been thrilled if I'd got an 'O'—"

"Hermione," said Ron sharply, and Ichigo was sure he wasn't the only one grateful for the interruption. "If you want to know what grades we got, ask."

"I don't-I didn't mean-well, if you want to tell me-"

"I got a 'P'," Ron said, ladling soup into his bowl. "Happy?"

"Well, that's nothing to be ashamed of," said one of the Weasley twins, who had just arrived at the table with George and Lee Jordan and was sitting down on Harry's right. "Nothing wrong with a good healthy 'P'."

"But, doesn't 'P' stand for ..."

"'Poor', yeah," said Lee Jordan. "Still, better than 'D', isn't it? 'Dreadful'?"

Ichigo snorted as he remembered the shiny letter. "Should I even be surprised?"

"What? _You_ got a 'D'?" Hermione asked incredulously. "But your potion today…"

"Who cares? Unless he's really trying to be too obviously biased, I'll get a passing grade on it. Not that it even matters."

"But! But it should matter!" Hermione protested.

"It doesn't," Ichigo persisted.

Hermione rolled her eyes, turning to the three older students. "So top grade's 'O' for 'Outstanding', and then there's 'A'—"

"No, 'E'," one of the twins corrected her. "'E' for 'Exceeds Expectations'. And I've always thought Fred and I should've got 'E' in everything, because we exceeded expectations just by turning up for the exams."

They all laughed except for Ichigo, who only snorted, and Hermione, who ploughed on, "So, after 'E' it's 'A' for 'Acceptable', and that's the last pass grade, isn't it?"

"Yep," said Fred, dunking an entire roll in his soup, transferring it to his mouth and swallowing it whole.

"Then you get 'P' for 'Poor'—" Ron raised both his arms in mock celebration— "and 'D' for 'Dreadful'."

Ichigo sighed as he glanced back towards his bag where the essay was unceremoniously pushed inside.

"And then 'T'," George reminded her.

"'T'?" asked Hermione, looking appalled. "Even lower than a 'D'? What on earth does 'T' stand for?"

"'Troll'," said George promptly.

Harry laughed again, with Ron, but the laugh quickly died down. The group then separated, the seventh years going to whatever class they were having, and Ron and Harry headed off to Divination. Ichigo followed Hermione for his selected class, Ancient Runes.

"It strikes me odd that you're not actually going for Divination like the rest of the class," she pointed out when they reached the classroom. "Any particular reason for that?"

Ichigo shrugged noncommittally. "I hate fortunetelling."

"That's it?" She was looking at him in an odd sort of way. Somewhat of a mixed surprise, skepticism and awe. Ichigo wasn't sure how to take it.

He settled for: "You need any more reasons than that?"

"N-no, not really," Hermione said, quickly looking away. "So, what were you looking for in the library the whole weekend? I'm pretty sure it wasn't just homework."

"Seriously, can't you just get off my case? It's not like it's any of your business." Not to mention that it was the fifth time she'd asked in the past two days.

"I just want to know if I can help you with it in anyway."

Ichigo sighed, leaning against the stone wall as they reached the classroom. He wasn't sure if she honestly meant it or if she was just being curious, but any offers of help were welcome at this point.

"Well, yeah, you probably could, but I'd appreciate it if you'd keep quiet on it," he said. "I don't mean like, it's an absolute secret or anything like that… just, I don't need everyone knowing what I'm up to…"

Hermione's grip on her bag tightened. "All right. Tell me."

"This is sort of a project we've been given back at home," he started carefully, suspicion in the back of his mind telling him this was probably not a good idea. "I'm not going to start explaining it all, but the thing is, do you know about any spells capable of replacing some memories with other memories?"

"Could you… repeat that? I don't understand what you are talking about. You are looking for a spell that will erase one memory and replace it with another?"

"Essentially, yes, that's the thing," Ichigo said. He found it disturbing how _easy_ it was to lie to her, though he wasn't technically lying. "So far, I've only found Obliviate, but that erases memories, rather than what I'm looking for. I would've asked Hinamori, but her project is something else so I can't exactly bother her now. She's having enough trouble as it is."

Hermione frowned thoughtfully. "Well, I haven't heard of anything like that, but I'll take a look. There has got to be something in the library about it."

"Thanks," Ichigo said with a sigh.

Hermione smiled briefly. The professor arrived soon and they got into the classroom.

* * *

As they were heading out after the class ended, Hermione blinked as Ichigo turned to go the other way. Before she could completely evaluate the situation, she asked, "Where are you going?

"To drop off my stuff," he said, gesturing at his bag.

Hermione frowned. Did he forget...? "But we are having Defence Against the Dark Arts now," she told him, as if he didn't know already.

"You don't think I'll seriously go and attend it again, do you?" Ichigo countered.

And she had been expecting it, of course. He hadn't attended the last one, so there was really no solid reason for him to attend this one, but still, she asked, "How can you not?"

"Because all we're going to be doing there is reading the book… the one I've already read. I don't really see the point in wasting an hour and a half."

"You are just giving her more material to work with!" said Hermione and she knew she was right. "If you don't show up, she may actually use it to get you, perhaps even Momo, out of Hogwarts. Do you really not mind it?"

She had asked this on a whim, of course. It was incomprehensible to her that someone could simply care so little about school. She was nearly expecting him to call her on the racism since she'd mentioned Momo (and she did _not_ think that way, but it wouldn't surprise her if Umbridge did), but she realized that maybe she'd hit the bulls eye, judging by the way Ichigo's scowl deepened, his fists clenched and he tensed.

"Fine," he said snappily.

Hermione only stared after him as he marched towards the Defence classroom, making his bad mood more than obvious. It occurred to her that she just may have hit the nail on the head this time. He always did appear to be closer with Momo than either of them was inclined to admit.

She found herself speeding up to catch up with him.

This was only another piece to add to the assimilating and never-ending pieces of the puzzle that Ichigo Kurosaki was. Hopefully, she'd be able to solve it one day.

As they joined the rest of the Gryffindors in the Defense classroom, once again she tried to think of some way to bypass Umbridge's 'no practicing magic' principle. She needed a teacher, yes, and Harry would fulfill that role splendidly, but... _That's it! How didn't it ever occur to me before? Numbers, we need numbers, students! They can't do anything about a study group!_

And as she covered a victorious smile appearing on her lips, Hermione started considering a list of potential members.

* * *

As I haven't thought up any... well, good enough quotes for the next chapter, let's just say that Ichigo's Reiryoku seems to be growing, Yoruichi is curious and you get an insight into what one Karakura resident is up to. Can anyone guess which one?


	10. Chapter 9: Planning a riot

Decided to put this up before I reread it again and change my mind about something. I think I've rewritten this twice already and at the moment I'm mostly satisfied with how it turned out. The scene in Karakura doesn't fit the with the timeframe of the scene before and the scene after... It should, to make the whole time difference applicable, happen sometime later, but for the sake of flow, you'll see what I've done.

I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter. However, I do own the plot... for the most part.

* * *

Chapter 9: Planning a riot

The Defense, even despite Kurosaki Ichigo's presence, had gone trough with little to no disturbance. The students were tasked with reading chapter three, but not many were actually doing it. No one had any intention of bringing up the point of no magic again, what with Umbridge's much snappier mood as of late. Apparently, there were rumors going on about some third year Ravenclaws that got in lots of trouble about it and no person in the class was willing to risk Umbridge's wrath, now that she seemed to be much easier to agitate.

Ichigo spent most of the class reading through several books he'd gotten from the library earlier, ignoring any comment the woman would make, refusing to rise to the bait. She'd been trying to do that by asking if there were any questions and no single person in the room was silly enough to respond. Potter was probably very close to it, but Hermione had a strong hold.

Ichigo wasn't even paying attention to Umbridge or the lesson. The mentions of Dark Magic in the _Defensive Magical Theory_ interested him, mostly because the approach was so scarce and lacked anything that could possibly give him any hint as to what it was. And he was still trying to find any spell remotely resembling what Hinamori had described. Neither he nor Hinamori had had much luck as of yet.

The books he'd taken were not from the restricted section, though, and he'd dismissed already three in the first fifteen minutes because while touching on the subject, none of those books actually informed him of anything.

The fourth book, compared to the others, was a valley of information, but on Dark Magic only and so far held no mentions of any memory spells. It didn't go in-depth to describe the effects or use of Dark Magic, but it informed Ichigo just enough about what he was trying to research. With a sigh he slammed the book shut as Defense ended and reminded himself to look into it a bit more when he got a chance. Right now, mountains of homework were not diminishing in the slightest.

The pile only grew as the week moved on.

On Tuesday, they'd gotten another two essays to finish, Charms and Transfiguration respectively.

While with Charms Ichigo hardly had any right to say a thing, for he did always mess up the spell, making it work the wrong way or not work at all, Transfiguration was something that was working out for him relatively well. And they were doing Vanishing Spells again, which Ichigo had eventually figured out how to use. The fact he was the last one to do so did not much to encourage him.

But technically, there was no reason for him to do the essay… or for any other student, for that matter.

"That's because your theoretic knowledge is lacking, Mr. Kurosaki," McGonagall had informed him when he'd asked about it.

Ichigo resigned and rolled his eyes. Apparently, theory was much more important than the spell itself.

Aside from that, Transfiguration had been particularly interesting that day, what with McGonagall practically insulting Umbridge whenever the other woman would try to get a word out. Ichigo, along with the rest of the Gryffindors, watched the exchange, deep inside hoping that McGonagall would throw her out ass over teakettle.

It didn't happen.

It was still good, anyway.

While most of the class headed out for Care of Magical Creatures, Ichigo, who'd decided a while ago not to take the subject for more than one reason, much to Harry's unexplained dissatisfaction, had walked over to the library to finish at least some of the essays and research the memory spell thingy. The week was looking to be as gloomy and uneventful as the previous one was. Though at least now he could get from the Great Hall to the common room and from the common room to the library without getting lost.

* * *

Kurosaki Karin was not in a very good mood that Tuesday evening.

Wait, no.

She was _pissed_.

Seeing as she had no will _or_ patience to deal with stupid dad, nor did she want to let it out on Yuzu, she escaped to the roof and settled for some peace there. Hopeful that at least now there wouldn't be anyone to bother her, she gazed at the sun that was slowly descending.

_It's, well, nice_, she admitted, and it helped her calm down, if only a little.

As the setting sun reflected in her eyes, she wrapped her arms around her knees, unable to tear her eyes away.

Sunsets were never her favorite part of the day. Maybe she'd picked that up from Ichi-nii, she wasn't sure, but that was just the way she was. That was the way she functioned and she didn't care about anyone else's opinion.

She managed to keep her mind empty for five seconds straight before that awful mood hit her again and her fists clenched.

She was furious with her dad for always talking so much, but never saying anything meaningful and Karin knew that he had to know at least a little about that Shinigami stuff Ichi-nii had gotten involved into. She was also furious with her teacher for not giving her the pass grade on the damned math exam that wasn't even that hard! She'd only made one mistake and the whole exam went downhill. Then, she was furious with all those spirits out there that were annoying her only because she could see them and subsequently that made her furious with Yuzu, because she _couldn't_ see them. But most of all, she was furious with Ichi-nii, for not contacting them at all since he'd gone over half the world.

_Damn him. An 'I'm okay' would suffice!_

Then she got furious with herself because she forgot that Ichi-nii didn't have a habit of reporting in at all when he was away.

_But at least… at least he's… at least he's not depressed anymore._

Leaning her head on her knees, she watched the final rays of sun disappear on horizon.

Okay, so maybe calling Ichigo depressed wasn't a fitting description, but he was certainly down. For the past six months, her brother hadn't been himself. He had still argued with the idiot dad as always. He had still been brash and short-tempered. However, it was as if an important part of him just… disappeared. Vanished. Disappeared with his Shinigami powers and never came back.

An essential part of him was gone and Karin picked up from listening to others that he had sacrificed his powers to stop a megalomaniac that apparently no one else could even slow down. Seeing him the way he'd been after waking up, sometimes just made her wish he hadn't. He looked more miserable than anything else.

At least until July.

The change was nearly invisible, but it was there, and as long as it was there, Karin could see it. As if that what he lost was beginning to come back. And then in August he just said he'd be gone for ten months and then he left to a _magic school_ of all places, across half the world!

And as much as Karin wanted to, she couldn't blame him.

Having him act the way he had for the past months or once again placing him in between life and death, Karin knew neither was a good option. But no matter what she'd do or say, it's not like he'd listen to her. So she didn't even bother. She only told him to get back in one piece. And she punched him. For being a jerk he was all the time.

And then he had promised he'd be back and Karin knew that once he makes a promise, he does everything to keep it.

Not that it made her any less angry with him.

She probably would have continued her mental rant for another hour that she hadn't spotted it: a tear in the sky.

And a Hollow's roar as it broke out of there, in search for some food.

Karin bolted to her feet, fists clenched.

Now she also had a Hollow to get pissed at.

_Fabulous._

She watched as the Hollow was seemingly trying to find its food, but then those glowing red eyes settled on hers and Karin felt as if there was a giant target hanging over her head.

_Come on… any second now…_

Nothing was happening.

The Hollow roared louder and, seemingly making a decision, flew towards Karin.

Karin let out a string of curses as she remembered that Ichigo's friends were on a museum exhibition in Tokyo and that Afro-san was in the other part of the town. _Seriously, Hollows here have a custom to appear at least twice a day. That stupid Soul Society could at least send reinforcements or someone more capable of dealing with them!_

In other words, there was only one thing she could do.

She went back inside the way she came and ran to her and Yuzu's room. Dad and Yuzu were downstairs, probably still having dinner, so they wouldn't have noticed it, not that Karin even wanted them to.

She found her soccer ball at the bottom of the bed and stormed out of the house to lure the monster away from her house. She wasn't sure if it'd suddenly decide to go after her dad or sister because they were easier targets, but she had to make sure it didn't.

The ugly, winged monster was looking at her with those gleaming red eyes, its mask resembling one that Karin had already seen before, but she couldn't remember where, what with the small horns and pattern on the forehead. The tiny slits made the red glow of its eyes even more eerie than it normally would have been. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that those eyes were greedily looking at her.

Putting her soccer ball down, Karin glared back, her fists clenched tighter than before. The air around Karin shifted and to any spiritually aware person looking from the side, her body would look as if it was seemingly glowing red. Karin never really noticed, though.

"Bring it on, freak," she said.

The Hollow, taking it as a cue, roared and rushed at her.

Karin kicked the ball.

Subconsciously, she noted that this was perhaps her strongest kick ever.

The ball itself glowing red tore through the creature's mask as if it was nothing more than a paper napkin and Hollow dilapidated into glowing particles before completely vanishing. It didn't seem to be a strong one at all.

"Maybe I shouldn't have kicked it that hard," Karin muttered to herself as she realized her soccer ball was nowhere to be seen. With a sigh, she set out to look for it, when…

"Well, that surely is a creative way to get rid of a Hollow."

Karin froze in her tracks. The voice was coming from somewhere behind her and she was not familiar with it. Not to mention that whoever it was, they knew about Hollows.

That _wasn't_ something every other person knew.

Slowly, she turned to look.

Her soccer ball was in possession of a tall, lean figure that she had never seen before, but even if she had she probably wouldn't have paid much attention. He was throwing it up and down casually, as if he'd just scored a goal or something, looking at her curiously. The only exceptional thing about him was the thin chain necklace with a cross-like pendant. There was something about it, something unnatural, but she'd be damned if she knew what.

He stopped playing with the ball, throwing it back at her. Karin barely reacted in time to catch it.

The stranger smirked.

"Say, is your brother at home?"

* * *

"We're finished with this, good…" Ichigo said as he slammed the Charms book closed. If there existed any subject that had absolutely no need of essays, yet it still applied them for some ridiculous, pointless reason, it was Charms.

"Maybe it would have been even better had we not skipped dinner, though," Neville remarked quietly and Ichigo's stomach grumbled in retaliation.

"Yeah," he admitted. "You think they're still serving?"

"I doubt it," Neville said. "You may find something in the kitchens, though."

"You're not hungry?" Ichigo asked as he packed his books.

Neville looked away. "I… no, not really."

"No? Because I'm pretty sure you said you were," Ichigo replied slamming the bag over his shoulder.

"Only a little bit," Neville admitted.

There was one reason he didn't like Neville all that much.

He reminded him of Keigo.

Which, in itself, was a ridiculous conclusion. Keigo and Neville were nothing alike. Keigo loved being in the center of the attention, while Neville seemed to be avoiding it at all costs. Keigo was loud, Neville… not so much. The only likeness is probably that they both had a habit of saying some really senseless, really stupid stuff from time to time, which often resulted with Ichigo hitting Keigo one way or another.

Doing the same thing with Neville left him thinking it would have been an equivalent of kicking a person that was already down. So, instinctively, he tried to hold back from being sarcastic or even mean in general.

"Thought so. You happen to know where the kitchens are?"

"Err… no. I'm pretty sure Harry, Ron and Hermione do. We could ask them."

"Sure, you can go and ask them about it when we get to the tower."

"What? You won't?" Neville asked, seemingly joking.

Ichigo found himself looking away this time. "Err… the last thing I need is Hermione getting on my case again… Seriously, can't that girl just lay off? She's too damn curious for her own good." Though, now that he said it, he did feel a bit bad. She'd managed to catch up to him after Herbology and tell him that so far she'd learned of another memory spell, but the effects weren't as quite as he described. She offered to show him the book later, and he accepted. That was more than what he'd managed to find.

Somehow, that only had him feeling as if he was being a hypocrite.

"Hermione is…" Neville trailed off, in search for a suitable word.

"Inquisitive?" Ichigo found himself muttering.

"…Bossy," Neville put in his two cents hesitantly.

Ichigo paused to stare at him.

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Eh? What? No, no. Not at all. I just… dunno. Didn't seem that way to me," Ichigo said and meant it. While knowledgeable, a little bit nerdy, awfully curious and inquisitive and any other synonym he currently couldn't remember, Hermione did _not_ strike him as bossy. Maybe that was the effect of hanging around Rukia too much, but that's just the way it was.

Neville opted not to say a thing and only shrugged instead.

"Say, we have any other homework for tomorrow? Astronomy or something?" Ichigo decided to change the subject.

"To finish that star mapping from the last lesson?" Neville offered.

"Ah… Did that already…"

"When? I didn't even start working on it and you weren't even in class!"

"Stayed up later, yesterday," Ichigo replied casually.

"Oh, yeah… I heard you got back in the dorm really late…" Neville said quietly.

Ichigo said nothing as they ascended the final staircase towards the Gryffindor Tower. The moment the portrait closed up behind them, they were cornered by Hermione.

"Where were you until now? You didn't even show up at dinner! We were supposed to work on that Ancient Runes essay!"

Judging by how her eyes went from squirming Neville to a stoic Ichigo, she was referring to both of them with vigor. Except that the last part was directed at Ichigo and Ichigo only.

"Sorry," Ichigo replied. "We sort of got caught up with that Charms essay. We can still work on it now, if you want. So far, I've only got the headline written."

"Oh... Fine, that's fine," she said. If she was caught off-guard, she didn't show any signs of it. "I was meaning to talk to you, either way." Her eyes settling on Neville who looked like he wanted to get out of there with first given chance, she clarified, "Both of you."

"Yeah?" Ichigo asked as she led them towards one of the more secluded corners of the Tower. "What about?"

She fidgeted a little before settling down in one of the armchairs. "I... I'm not exactly sure how to say this."

The way she was constantly playing with the pages of a book she was holding, the way her voice was quiet when she'd said it… they were making it obvious that she was not very comfortable with whatever she was about to say; like it's a secret or something. Too bad Ichigo didn't realize that.

"You say one word after another—I think that's the trick," he stated.

She smiled awkwardly. "Yes, you have a point. Well, for the past few—oh, never mind. Since that awful woman showed up, I have been trying to think of a way we could still learn Defensive magic and I think I've come up with an idea that could work."

"You know, you're the last person I'd ever expect to say that," Ichigo said dryly.

Hermione sighed, a small smile appearing on her face. "Well, I suppose. But we really can't keep going on this way and if we don't do something, we… we won't be prepared for what's out there. We won't even be ready for OWLs, especially not for anything else!"

"Trust Hermione to think about exams," Neville muttered to Ichigo in very low voice, that held a note of admiration. "I'm in," he said a bit louder.

Ichigo was nearly out asking, 'You are?' incredulously as possible, when he noticed the smile fade away from Hermione's face.

"I thought so," she said, her expression serene. "Let me just finish what I started and we can come to that part where you agree, Neville, is that all right?"

"Umm, yeah. Sure."

"Good." She sighed. "I concluded that we need an alternate teacher for Defense – someone with experience and knowledge—"

"Professor Lupin?" Neville quickly piped up.

"Well, that was the primary idea, but how would you explain his presence at Hogwarts? We could only meet him at Hogsmeade and that would not be nearly frequent enough for us to learn anything."

Ichigo was still taking it a bit odd, the fact that the whole Gryffindor house seemed to adore Lupin, but even more he was surprised that it was Hermione who was trying to get away with planning a rebellion.

"No, that wouldn't work at all," Hermione continued. "Thus, we had to come up with another idea."

She paused, as if waiting them to say something or maybe ask what the idea was, but as neither one of them said a word – only continued staring at her, actually – she said, "Harry."

"Wait… you mean Potter? As a teacher?"

Ichigo tried to keep the disbelief inside. After all, he'd heard Potter had a knack for getting in trouble all the time (he could relate), and if the type of trouble was any even remotely resembling to the trouble Ichigo had a habit of getting into, then logically, Potter should be capable of something above average. Or at least he was resourceful.

However, Potter was hardly teaching material.

"Harry?" Neville repeated. "That… is a great idea!"

Wait. _What?_

Hermione smiled. "I'm glad you agree, Neville."

"So, you're saying that Potter should be the teacher… okay," Ichigo said, albeit a little bit reluctantly. "But what exactly do you have in mind for us to learn?"

"Defensive magic, jinxes, hexes, counter-jinxes and counter-curses," Hermione responded quickly. "As much as we can learn, of course. Surely, we're not going to be focusing on theory much, but rather practicing the spell—"

"That's enough for me," Ichigo said, deciding to drop off any idea of Potter sucking as a teacher as long as he could work with magic a bit more and with a good excuse. "I'm in."

He was half-expecting her to grin or smile or something, but her face expression was rather sullen and she bit her lip. "Are you… sure? Because if this sort of thing gets out in the open, Umbridge will not hesitate to have you expelled. I don't… I don't want you to—"

"What the hell are you on about?" Ichigo asked, scratching the back of his head. "I've got nothing to lose."

"But—"

"Let's get that Runes essay finished, 'kay? I wanna get some sleep."

"All… right. I'll let you know when the first meeting is," Hermione said.

"Good. Now," Ichigo said, as he fished out the blank paper that was supposed to represent his essay and the Runes book the professor had given him when he said he'd join. "How the hell do you translate this thing?"

"Well, it is often referred to as a Latin word for monogram, but in this context, the meaning is a bit different," Hermione said as she proceeded explaining the rune Ichigo was glaring at.

Neville felt distinctively out of place there, as the two out of nowhere started talking about a subject he never attended.

Ichigo only noticed that he slipped away once Neville was half-way up to their dormitories. Hermione had been a bit frantic when she noticed, but he told her to shut up with enough ferocity for that to work.

That night, Ichigo went to bed with an odd sense of fulfillment and no clue whatsoever where that came from.

The dorm was empty for anyone other than him and Neville. Ron and Harry were probably still out on that Quidditch practice and the other two boys were back downstairs, were playing some Exploding-thing game with Fay Dunbar, Lavender and Ron's sister.

Wait. That was wrong, Ichigo realized as he spotted something moving at the bottom of his bed. There was someone else in the dorm and… It jumped on his bed?

Seeing as the dorm was dark – Ichigo didn't bother with turning on whatever usually lit it up – it was difficult to discern what exactly that was. At least until he got closer and started staring at the two glowing golden eyes and a malicious grin that should have been completely out of place on a cat's face. Not to mention that, for a difference of the last twenty times he'd seen her lurking around, Yoruichi was looking especially solid now. Or maybe it was just the dark. He couldn't allow himself to get his hopes too much, after all. The progress was supposed to be slow. It was supposed to take time and—

"What _the hell_ are you _doing_?!"

Yoruichi-the-cat had been in the process of settling down to (apparently) sleep on his pillow. Normally, Ichigo probably wouldn't be having such a reaction. He'd just make her get away and it's not like he had any trouble with animals sleeping in a bed. It was Yoruichi grinning that had him worried here!

"Eh? Ichigo?"

And apparently, Neville was now awake, too.

"O-oi, sorry about that!" Ichigo said over his shoulder, his eyes not moving away from the lazy cat that was _still_ grinning like mad. "The cat is just…"

"Oh, so it's your cat?" Neville said. "Harry was sure it was, but since you never mentioned anything…"

"NO! I mean—yeah! I mean-! Never mind… Just go back to sleep, Neville."

"Good night," came the muffled response.

"'Night…"

Ichigo was looking at Yoruichi now, as if trying to figure out what was wrong with the picture. She was looking definitely solid, compared to the misty form of her that he'd seen the evening before. Hell, she looked like a real cat, not a ghost-cat as she was supposed to be.

Slowly, he stepped a bit closer to his bed, hand stretched out before him.

It could mean only one thing but he'd be damned if he didn't confirm it right away.

He'd been an inch away from touching her head when she stretched up on her feet and the next thing Ichigo knew was that she was walking graciously on the floor and that something over his face stung It took him a second to figure out what she did.

"Dammit, Yoruichi! What was that for?"

She didn't reply, of course.

She simply continued walking around, tail high in the air, god-mode.

Ichigo rubbed the gashes, glaring at her with all his might, before he settled on the bed and his shoulders slumped.

Damn did it hurt.

He noticed Neville, up on his elbow, giving him a worried look. "Are you all right? I never thought your cat was this violent…"

"I'm fine," Ichigo bit off. Maybe he should later explain Neville that what _his cat_ had been doing was something most people would call an inconspicuous way to show someone that their suspicions were right, without saying it out loud. Honestly, Ichigo couldn't say he minded. It was nice knowing that his spiritual power was coming back. Now all he had to do was make it come back _faster_.

That, though, he was going to deal with some other time. He reached in his pocket where he'd gotten the letter from Lupin just earlier that evening and read it.

_Dear Ichigo and Momo_

_I'm very glad to hear that you are enjoying at Hogwarts. What do you think of the lessons so far? Is it on par with your old school? And have you made any friends? I used to teach your classmates so I know how excitable they can be._

_Ah, and what you asked about the halls, Ichigo, I'm not sure I can be of much help. I used to get lost throughout the whole first year and even in the beginning of the second. I guess there is no better answer than: You get used to it._

_I'm sorry I can't help you more with it. _

_Also, I am very proud to say that yes, I got the job. Perhaps I could treat you two to ice-cream during the holidays. Of course, that works as long as your grades are on a level._

_Sincerely,_

_Remus Lupin_

Ichigo sighed and pushed the parchment in his drawer. _I'll deal with that tomorrow. _Right now, all he wanted was some sleep.

* * *

Momo had been in the library when Yoruichi came to talk to her.

If she were to be a judge, Momo would say that it was about two in the morning. She was in her Shinigami form, out in the library, trying to cope with a mountain of essays that she considered completely unimportant to her, yet she still wanted to get a best possible grade on them and at the same time she was actively working on improving her ability to sense the spiritually aware students, which were, unfortunately, far too many to count. Not to mention that so far she'd found next to none information about the effect of a memory charm like Kikanshinki.

As for why she wasn't dealing with that during day, it was because the nights were… calmer. Less crowded. Less rushed.

Especially at Hogwarts.

There was no one talking to her, constantly drawing her attention away, like during the day, when she was surrounded by those Hufflepuff girls. Of course, that was not meant as an insult. She liked both Susan and Leanne a lot, and she liked other girls as well, but she couldn't treat them like real friends, after all. She couldn't form bonds of friendship that would be severed the moment she finished her mission. She simply couldn't afford it.

So while being as friendly as she could possibly be, she still held them at an arm's length away. If there was anyone who she could talk to, it was Yoruichi-san, and Kurosaki-san to a stretch, but that didn't quite matter right now.

"Is something the matter, Yoruichi-san?" she asked, closing the thick, dusty book, when after five minutes there, Yoruichi-san uttered no word. "It's not like you to go out looking for me this late."

Yoruichi-san jumped up to Momo's surprise, settling in her lap. "Just wanted to tell you that Ichigo's Reiatsu level had grown immensely, compared to yesterday."

"Really?"

"Seems so. Trust that kid to break a record. Two weeks away from home and he's already at an unseated officer's level. I know it's not much, but seeing that until yesterday all he could make out of me was a blurry shape, the progress is immense."

Momo inhaled, then exhaled deeply. "Trust Kurosaki-san to go against all logic," she said, though there was a trace of amusement in her voice.

"Well, on the bright side, he's now sporting some rather _beautiful_ scratches over his face. Must say, not even I thought I could make them look so perfect, but look how it turned out." Yoruichi played with her tail before stretching out and escaping Momo's grasp.

The said girl giggled. "Oh, you didn't. Poor Kurosaki-san."

"So, are you ready?"

The question came abruptly. Momo blinked.

"Am I… ready…?" she asked uncertainly. It hit her like a ton of bricks only a second later. "Ah, I… Of course I'm ready. It's not like I can allow myself to get out of shape, no?" She smiled, to reassure the lady of the Shihoin clan.

Yoruichi-san nodded.

"Good. Ah, it's going to get exciting once he gets his powers back."

"Eh? Are you—how do you know that, Yoruichi-san? Err-I mean; the good exciting or the bad exciting?"

Momo felt a chill running down her spine at the grin on Yoruichi's face. "It's Ichigo. Whenever he's around, there's bound to be some trouble on the way."

Momo didn't take it to being a bit too far fetched, since it was common knowledge that Kurosaki-san was the harbinger of chaos. That had been proven correct multiple times, except that Momo had never been pushed in the middle of the events, like Kuchiki-san and Orihime-chan. She couldn't say she minded. Spotlight wasn't a place for her. It was for people like Kurosaki-san, who did what they thought was right no matter what others said.

Hinamori Momo was not like that.

And maybe, just maybe, that was the reason she couldn't bring herself down to have unwavering faith in him like others. They weren't friends. They were nothing of the sort.

Right now, they were only allies at best.

Momo dreaded of what could become if she suddenly turned up on Kurosaki Ichigo's list of people he wanted to protect. It would be an honor, in a way, she admitted. But as much as it would be honor, it would also be hindrance, for she could no longer allow herself to be protected by anyone. Tobiume had beaten it down into her back during the Zanpakuto Rebellion, and her words, however unintentional, were true and Momo was far too weak and naïve. She hoped she was doing at least a little bit better now.

However, under immense pressure as she was, she completely forgot the fact that her name had already gotten on the list.

* * *

"No! Not that way! Damn, Parvati, will you just listen?!" Ichigo said irritably, his hand pulling at his hair. "It's the other way around, dammit. You're doing the whole wand motion wrong!"

Parvati, who was at the moment trying to perform the Color Changing Charm, stopped short. Her wand was awkwardly pointed at a pair of pink bunny slippers, the look on her face was focused and her voice was sharp and frustrated when she spoke. "What am I doing wrong?"

Ichigo groaned hopelessly. "Everything!"

"Well, any normal person would say that it was so because of a lousy tea—"

"Not my fault you weren't listening! Even _I _managed to pick that one up, seriously! What were you doing the whole time Flitwick-sensei was talking?"

Parvati sighed, twirling her wand in her fingers.

They were at the Gryffindor tower and it was Friday evening – the Friday right before the famed Hogsmeade trip the whole school was buzzing about – and about half an hour ago Parvati literally dragged Ichigo out of the library to ask him for some help with Color Changing Charm, which was apparently ought to appear on the OWLs so they were revising it during their last Charms lesson. It was, after all, a third year spell. Ichigo managed the spell on his thirty-second try (not that he was keeping count, really), and Parvati frankly sucked.

Which was what got them into this hopeless situation in the first place, with Ichigo doing his best to explain what she was doing wrong and Parvati not getting a single damn thing right about the spell.

The problem? Ichigo didn't know what she was doing wrong, either.

He was hardly an expert for magic and he _tried_ telling her that Neville might do a better job, but not one of them even thought about it before yelling a 'no' in his face. The end results were Ichigo pulling his hair out because he had next to no idea what she was doing wrong, other than everything, and it was frustrating him. What bothered him even more was that she only wanted to learn the spell so she could change her pink bunny slippers into _purple_. Talk about _pointless_.

"I was listening," Parvati said finally. "And I'm not lying to you. I even asked questions about it, which you were clearly unaware of; therefore I should be asking you what you were doing in class."

"Practicing magic, duh. Just… try it one more time. If it's not working, just accept the fact that you're going to have to ask someone else to do it or ask Flitwick-sensei for remedial lessons or something. And _don't_ look at me. I just may set them on fire if I try it."

"You are mean," she said blandly.

"I'm _not_! I hate those things and those things hate me! It's torture enough that you're just having me look at them."

"Well, I'm not asking you to do it, Ichigo," she said. "All I'm asking is you to teach me how I can do it."

Ichigo inhaled. "I did all I could," he admitted, settling his glare back at the bunny-slippers. "I may have picked up on that particular spell, but hell if I understand how."

She didn't seem all that particularly pleased. "Fine. So, I point the wand at the object, focus on the color I want it to change to, then flick it and whoa la, I get my slippers the way I want them. Is that right?"

"Err… basically."

"Good."

Ichigo ran a hand through his hair again, wondering if Neville would remember to take his stuff along. Now that he thought of it, he had been in the middle of writing a sentence when Parvati showed up. It would have been well if Neville had noticed it and finished instead. Probably not, knowing that kid, but he did w—

"I did it!"

Ichigo looked up, his trail of thought cut off by Parvati's exclamation. "Eh?"

"Yes, I did it! It worked! Thanks, Ichigo!"

"Umm…" Ichigo's eyes went from the purple bunny-like slippers (which did not, in anyway, look better now) to one very excited girl looking as if she's about to start dancing. She grinned at him and Ichigo found himself subconsciously pulling away. If she'd noticed it, she made no reference to it whatsoever.

"Say, Ichigo, are you going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" she asked.

It was, if his count was right, the seventh time someone had asked him that in the past two days. Hermione had asked him twice. Neville, Ron and Harry each asked him once. Hinamori asked him if they even had the permission to go there (all right, that didn't have to count), and now Parvati joined the group too. He told her exactly what he told the others.

"No idea."

She seemed to be taking it a bit better than others.

"No? Why not? I was thinking that, if you went, I could treat you to a Butterbeer or something. I do owe you for this. What? I wasted quite a bit of your time. I should at least pay it back somehow."

Ichigo sighed. "I don't know. I don't know if I can even go in the first place. Totally forgot asking McGonagall about it earlier. It's not like we got the slip with the letter so no one actually told us if we can or can't go."

"But you'll ask, no? You'll ask if you can come?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, sure." Not to mention that Hermione would have his head if he didn't. She'd told him about five times already that the meeting was at the Hog's Head at noon and Neville said she was going to skin him alive if he didn't show up. He still wasn't sure if Neville was just trying to make a joke (failure, at best) or if he was being serious, but he knew better than taking chances with determined girls.

"Good. Well, I'll see you in Three Broomsticks at lunchtime, I suppose," Parvati said, as she started gathering up her stuff. "Thanks a lot. I really appreciate your help with this."

Ichigo said nothing as she gave him a little wave and disappeared in the direction of the girl dorms.

Hopefully the library was still open so he could finish the essay he'd started. He made a mental note to get himself a wrist-watch as soon as possible. Telling time at Hogwarts was possible in only several places (such as dormitories), and he didn't _always_ have enough time to get there and check it out.

He was half-way to the hole when portrait swung open, revealing Neville.

"Oh, hey," Ichigo said. "I was just about to get down."

"Yeah? I brought your stuff."

Ichigo blinked at his bag and the half-done essay and nodded. "Ah, doumo."

"Ehm… what?" Neville asked, tilting his head only a little.

"It means thanks," Ichigo said as he took the bag back. "Library still open?"

"No. Madam Pince literally threw me out so I brought your stuff along," Neville said as they headed over to the free corner of the common room. "I figured you'd be busy, what with Parvati being… hey, where is she?"

"Upstairs, somewhere," Ichigo said, scratching the back of his head. "Man, was it a hassle… First she absolutely sucks, and then suddenly she gets it right. And all that for goddamn bunnies."

Though it sounded largely annoyed, Ichigo's voice held no edge to it. It's not like it bothered him _that_ much. Besides, it was over. He could finish the essay _and _stop Yoruichi from pulling that prank on the Finnegan kid she'd been planning the whole day. Hopefully. After all, it was _his_ dormitory that was going to suffer if her plan worked.

He gave Neville an early goodnight just after he finished the essay and, thankfully, he was the first to get in their dorm. He had no idea what Harry, Ron and Hermione were up to, but he had a feeling that he was better off not knowing.

"Yoruichi! Oi, Yoruichi-san!" he called the moment the door shut.

"Geez, I swear it was better when you couldn't talk to me," Yoruichi yawned. Ichigo spotted her at the bottom of his bed, lazily stretching her paws and tail while yawning. "It was such a good nap, too."

"Gomen. Had to make sure you weren't going to pull any pranks tonight. That with Dean and Potter's glasses last night wasn't particularly interesting."

Ichigo lazily let his bag sprawl on the floor and fell sideways on his back, arms stretching behind his head. He could feel light breeze ruffling through his hair, but he had no idea where it was coming from. All the windows were closed.

Yoruichi climbed on the bed as well, stretching again. "Why, I think it was really creative. Anyways, I'm too lazy to do anything right now. Say, Ichigo, what's taking place tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Ichigo repeated, bending his head so he could look at her. "You mean field trip to that village?"

"No, you idiot!" Yoruichi said, jumping on him and smashing her head against his hard.

"OW! Yoruichi! What was that for?"

"You're an idiot! As if I didn't hear the part about the field trip! What I want to know is; what is taking place _during_ the field trip?"

Ichigo rubbed his head where there was a small trace of red appearing. "During?" he asked, and thought. "There's nothing taking place during—"

"I know you know," Yoruichi cut him off. "Something is taking place tomorrow. Everyone is buzzing about it; every boy in this dorm. It's the same with the girls in Hufflepuff. Hinamori said she'd let me in on it later, but I'm not quite patient. So, what is taking place at the village tomorrow?"

Ichigo stared at Yoruichi and she was staring right back. With a sigh, he said, "Basically, students are organizing a group to study."

"That much excitement over a study group?" Yoruichi said, voice dripping with skepticism.

"Yeah, I know. Ironic, isn't it, how students here actually _want_ to study. That can't possibly be normal!"

"So I'm guessing it is Granger leading the group?" Yoruichi said, her voice sounding genuinely amused now.

"Technically, I guess," Ichigo said, running a hand through his hair. "She's organizing, anyway. Seems like Potter's gonna be the leader."

"So you'll just be meeting up that once where the professor can do nothing to stop you?" Yoruichi said.

"Nah. According to her, that tomorrow thing is just a meeting to determine numbers or something… and for Potter to tell a tale, I guess. Dunno. I guess I can only find out if I go."

"And you're not? Going, I mean?"

"I… well, I'm… I _should,_ I guess. I don't know if I can, though. To visit the village you require some sort of a form or something and neither Hinamori nor I have gotten that. I was intending to ask McGonagall about it, tomorrow… unless you happen to know something about it."

"Me?" Yoruichi asked. "Why would I know anything about it?"

"Oh, I don't know… maybe because you're listed as one of our professors?" Ichigo said accusingly.

Brown clashed with golden.

Yoruichi let out a shrill laugh.

"No, I don't know anything," she said after calming down. "Don't worry, though. I'm sure you'll be able to go. Even without the permission form signed."

Ichigo sighed, allowing his face to relax. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too."

"Good," Yoruichi said, then jumped back on the floor. "Well, I'm out of here for tonight. Hinamori's expecting me for an assessment and I'll probably be gone during the weekend. I've got to check in with Soifon and see if she's got any of those memories of hers figured out. Still no luck with that memory charm thingy?"

"No," Ichigo said. "Not even Hermione had any luck. She says she's sure something like that doesn't exist and in a case we find something, I have a feeling she won't leave me alone unless I tell her what it's all about."

"Ichigo—"

"It's not like I'll tell her anything," he said quickly. "Damn, Hinamori's been pestering me about it, too. I won't tell her, don't worry. Hell if I let anyone else get involved with this shit."

"That's not what I was trying to say, but never mind. Oh, and how is that training with Hinamori going?"

"Err…" Ichigo was a bit hesitant to admit that he got his ass handed to him by a Vice-captain limited to one fifth of their normal Reiatsu, using only a single Hadō technique. Though, that was only after he'd managed to stand his ground against her for about half an hour when she was 'just using Hakuda' – as she'd said it. Once the whole 'training session' was through, she'd explained the sudden use of Kido as 'I wanted to kick it up a notch, see how well you can take it'. His muscles were still sore even after she'd healed him.

What Ichigo didn't know, however, was that the look on his face told Yoruichi everything she needed to know. Shaking her head, she said, "Never mind. Ja ne."

And she was gone.

Ichigo noted only a small shudder at the door seconds afterwards before he rolled his eyes and settled in his bed as he should have from the start. He heard Neville get in a couple of minutes later, followed by Ron and Harry about half an hour after.

Tomorrow, Ichigo noted, was going to be goddamn stressful.

He wasn't all that wrong, either.

It started out during breakfast, of course. Ichigo had barely even gotten to taste his fried eggs when Ron's sister – Gin-something, if Ichigo recalled well – came to fetch him for McGonagall.

"Did she say what she wanted?" Ichigo asked exasperatedly.

"Other than you in her office? No, nothing. I'll just assume it's about the Hogsmeade trip," she replied.

Inwardly, Ichigo groaned. _What else can it be?_

Turned out McGonagall wasn't exactly calling him to talk about the permission slip, however.

"Mr. Kurosaki," she said with a nod when he entered her office.

Ichigo nodded back. "You needed something?" Hastily, he added, "Professor?"

"Ah—yes, yes. There is a reason I have called you here. Just be patient for a moment, Mr. Kurosaki. We're still waiting for Miss Hinamori to arrive."

"Is this about that village?" Ichigo asked. "I mean, there's this whole buzz going on about it, so I'm guessing—"

"No, it is not just about Hogsmeade," McGonagall said. "There are several other things that have to be settled, other than the visit to the village."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"We shall wait for Miss Hinamori before I disclose anything," McGonagall said firmly.

Ichigo sighed. _Guess there's no point trying to squeeze it out of her. _The silence in McGonagall's office was deafening for the next several minutes, which was how long it took Hinamori to get there. When she entered, she looked just as clueless as Ichigo himself felt and he wasn't sure what to make of it. He looked at McGonagall expectantly.

"Well?" he asked.

"Follow me," she said firmly and led them out of the office.

Ichigo looked at Hinamori, his eyebrow quirking.

She shook her head, indicating she had no idea what it was about, either.

Seeing no other option, the two followed McGonagall out through hallways and up towards one of the towers.

Ichigo noticed Hinamori's eyes widening as McGonagall led them through the empty corridor. "McGonagall-sensei," she said. "Where are we going?"

"The Headmaster had requested to speak to you two, Miss Hinamori, Mr. Kurosaki," McGonagall informed them. "Don't worry. It shouldn't take long. You'll be just in time to go to Hogsmeade with the rest of the school if the Headmaster grants you the permission."

Ichigo and Hinamori exchanged a look as McGonagall stopped before a stone gargoyle.

"Fizzing Whizbees," she said. The gargoyle moved, revealing the hidden staircase. Ichigo saw Hinamori's fists clench.

_Oh, right. She can finish her mission now. With a little luck, we'll be half-way home by the end of the day._ Ichigo's stance stiffened a little. His Shinigami powers weren't back yet, but what had Urahara said about it? Something like they only needed to restore his basic Reiryoku and they needed magic for that. The rest of it… well, Ichigo wasn't sure what he'd said about the rest of it, but he was pretty sure that his level now was the same as it was back before Rukia transferred her powers on him, if not even higher.

In other words, there was nothing keeping them there if Hinamori managed to erase the old man's memories now.

"Come on, go ahead," McGonagall told them.

Ichigo stepped first, Hinamori following after him. They only realized a second later that McGonagall wasn't going. Ichigo used the chance to ask quietly in Japanese,

"You gonna finish this now?"

Hinamori was frowning thoughtfully, but she nodded briefly. Ichigo nodded back. _Well, if that's the way it is… _He faced the door that separated them from the Headmaster's office and knocked.

Much to his shock, the door opened on its own.

* * *

And that's a wrap. Wow. This chapter came out quickly.

And just for the kicks, I ain't giving any clue to what's happening in the next chapter. So, what do you think? Will Momo do what she's supposed to do? Or not? Do leave a review! It makes me get off my lazy ass and it helps the chapters to be finished faster.


	11. Chapter 10: The wheels turn

Chapter 10: The wheels turn

Albus Dumbledore was in the process of returning a book back to the shelf when he noted that Minerva brought the two Japanese students as he had requested. He was walking back towards his desk when he heard a knock on the door. With only a wave of his hand, the door opened, revealing two rather surprised teenagers.

"Ah, you're here, Mr. Kurosaki, Miss Hinamori," he said as he walked back towards his desk. His Pensieve still lay there and he hastily moved it back to its usual location. Ichigo watched the bowl, slightly confused and Albus found it amusing, but he wasn't about to tell the boy what it was. At least not yet.

"Come on in, come on in," he called the two.

Ichigo and Momo exchanged a look before the former walked in determinedly and the latter followed.

Flicking his wand, the two armchairs appeared at once. Albus' eyes twinkled as he noticed the surprise on the two. _For as long as they have already been here, one would have figured they've already gotten used to magic. Ah, no matter now._ "Take your seats, please. I assume it would be very uncomfortable to have a long conversation while standing up."

The two abided, albeit reluctantly.

"So, Dumbledore-san," Momo was the first to begin, "what is it that you wanted to speak to us about?"

The look in her eyes was cold, calculative and serious, but there was something else underneath. Albus was having trouble deciphering what exactly. _Hm… looking at them now makes it really hard to believe that they are both at least my age. _Momo was looking especially anxious, her posture stiff. Much like a child that is about to be scolded. She didn't at all appear to be that smiling, hard-working and nice girl that Pomona had reported her to be. _Though I assume I should not be surprised._

"Well, for the beginning, I would like to know how you have settled in. Mind you, what sort of a host would I be if I didn't make sure my guests were comfortable?"

There she smiled a little, but it didn't reach her eyes. Beside her, Ichigo's frown deepened.

"It is all right," Momo said, apparently noticing the same, though Albus had no idea how. "Sure, it would have been nicer had you provided us with some maps of the castle, but seeing how much those staircase like to change, I'm not sure it would be of much help."

"Well, yes. There are still enough rooms in this castle that not even I am aware of," Albus said matter-of-factly.

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched. "Really now?" he asked.

"Why, of course. Though, now that I think of it, Mr. Kurosaki, professor Snape noted that your skill with Potions is rather astounding, considering that this is the first time you've ever taken the subject."

Now, Ichigo was beginning to look uncomfortable. He refused to meet Albus' gaze, determinedly looking at the sleeping portraits of other Headmasters and Headmistresses. _Hm… I wonder what he'd do if they were awake… Well, they surely sleep too much. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea…_

"It's not as if it's hard," Ichigo said in the end, breaking Albus out of his thoughts. "Maybe you should just tell Snape that he should stop intimidating students if he wants better results. Most of them are either too freaked out or too pissed off to do well in his subject."

"I'll remember that for future reference," Albus noted. "Though, it is Professor Snape, Mr. Kurosaki. No matter how… different, you are still a student in this school. You should treat your professors with respect."

"_I'm_ not the one with an obvious bias here," Ichigo grumbled, though the lone thought of accepting authority seemed to be driving him off. Albus took note of that for future reference. _So I probably wouldn't be wrong to say that this one is frequently at the center of the events that happen._

"Even so," he said, deciding to not give any hint as to the fact he was analyzing them. "I'm afraid there isn't much I can do about professor Snape's preferences, other than advise him not to be so open about it."

"Ever tried this thing called blackmail?" Ichigo asked, the look in his eyes now piercing. "I heard it comes off as really successful in odd cases."

"Kurosaki-san," Momo hissed under her breath.

_Ah… Well, I should have known they wouldn't be too happy about it. _Albus put his hands on the desk, almost allowing them to see how defeated he was, but it was not yet the time.

"_Look, all you have to do is bring them to Hogwarts. Leave everything else to me, all right?"_

"_You are aware that I can do nothing that warrants success before September, are you not?" Albus' companion had nodded. Albus had sighed. He may as well accept that there was nothing else he could do but comply. "How long do you wish me to keep them here?"_

"_If everything goes according to plan, a month will be more than enough, but just in case, make sure they stay at least until Christmas."_

"_You have to understand that I am meddling with something that I do not have any knowledge of. Are you certain that the condition you've said would be enough to make it work?"_

"_Seireitei takes every threat, conditioning and blackmailing seriously, according to what I know about them. Trust me, they'll agree. But they'll also backstab you the first chance they get. Just make sure you are able to follow up on your threat and make them know it, but I wouldn't advise you actually doing it. The consequences would be… bad."_

"_I see." Here, Albus had hesitated. "Are you ever going to tell me why? Why go through all this trouble?"_

_The smile he had witnessed almost made his heart break in two._

"_It's the only way."_

Albus forced the memory away. It never did well to dwell on the past too much. Instead, he decided to focus on the present. Already, the two Soul Re—no, _Shinigami,_ weren't fond of him and Albus wondered how did he ever manage to overlook that fact?

"I am not going to look for any excuses," Albus told them softly. "In fact, you have every right to be… hmm… _ticked off_… by my actions. I daresay you wouldn't be the only ones. However, I ask this, and I would like you to answer me truthfully. Had I not done it, would there be any way for me to protect a child from a monster?" _Ironic, how this actually does apply in more than one sense._

"You're talking about that dark wizard guy? I'm afraid I forgot the name," Ichigo said, recognition in his eyes, along with something akin to accusation.

Albus noted how the further this conversation went on, all the more nervous Momo was becoming. _Are they really ready to, well, backstab wouldn't exactly be applicable in this situation, but surely they aren't having something in plan to halt me? _He couldn't tell for sure, because neither of them seemed to be twitching, nor did they look as if they were expecting anything, but he was having a very odd feeling. And if they were as old as he was, they must also be just as wise.

"Yes, I am talking about Lord Voldemort," he clarified calmly.

"Really? Because he doesn't sound all that much scarier than an average Hollow," Ichigo said matter-of-factly. "Sure, the fact he's a human embodiment of a bastard counts, but I'm pretty sure I've seen worse. Though those weren't exactly human, to be honest…"

Albus could tell that sentence held a whole lot of meaning, but he didn't have a clue as to what this was about. However, he was pretty sure that there weren't many people worse than Voldemort. If given a chance, Tom would conquer not just Britain, but perhaps even the entire world. With the way he acted now, that may as well be what he was up to, other then reaching the prophecy.

"I sincerely doubt that, Mr. Kurosaki. How many… cruel, cold, even manipulative people would steep so low to murder a one-year-old child the same way they would murder any other adult? No, not many, I believe, and I am not of those people who believe that there are humans born evil. However, fourteen years ago, Lord Voldemort went from low to even lower, by attempting to murder a baby. Just a couple of months ago, he stepped even lower than that by attempting to kill the same boy again, after successfully performing one of the darkest rituals that has ever existed."

"So what you are doing is asking from us to protect Harry Potter from your worst enemy… Why?" Momo spoke. Her voice was calm, words slow, but there was something in it that left Albus feeling strangely nervous. Her whole demeanor, the way she was holding her body, it all screamed: Danger! But Albus did not yet want to believe it. All he could see was an anxious fifteen-year-old girl that did not seem to be fond of him.

"What does it have to do with us? Why would you ever involve outsiders to do _your_ job at _their_ own personal risk?" she demanded to know.

_Well, at least she… _she what? Wasn't trying to accuse him? No, that was not it. Actually, he was pretty sure that accusing him was exactly what she was doing. But at least she didn't outright attack him, which, he hoped, meant he could at least kill some animosity he had created.

"That is precisely it," Albus said. "You are an unknown, a whole new species, in a way, that our world is completely unaware of. Who better to protect Harry than somebody whose abilities are an unknown to anyone in vicinity, be it the light or the dark."

"In other words, we are outsiders who don't understand what is going on in your world, but with the power to help your side win," Momo concluded.

"It is the only way," Albus repeated those words from his memory, hoping, willing, _praying_ for her to understand at least a part of it. "It is the only way, one with the minimal casualties. I… I cannot afford to let Lord Voldemort succeed in his plans, and subsequently, Harry is the only person capable of stopping him. Do you understand now?" he asked, hoping against hope that he at least had one of them convinced. Their reactions to his words were odd, as if he'd just poked an old wound, and they were both refusing to meet his gaze.

"I… see…" Momo whispered, her gaze falling down. "If that's the way it is, Dumbledore-san, then I am truly sorry about this."

When she looked up to meet his eyes, Albus saw remorse. Actually, he only caught a small glimpse of it before the purple gleam took over and every emotion disappeared from her face. He became aware of the purple cherry blossoms falling everywhere around him, before his vision became blurry and he was unable to hold onto the thought. He tried. It would be wrong to say that he didn't, but whatever Momo was doing, it was not magic. He could no longer tell one end of the room from the other and shortly thereafter, he knew nothing but dark

* * *

Ichigo flinched at the sudden shift in Reiatsu inside the office and fought the urge to close his eyes. Now that his own Reiatsu wasn't as strong as it used to be (and he was actually trying), he could feel the small shifts in Reiatsu and even make a distinction among Hinamori's, Yoruichi's and many others he could feel inside the walls. Of course, that only went for as long as they were in the same room with him. A small room.

However, whatever Hinamori was doing, it left him feeling strangely disoriented, but it was nothing compared to the old man. The moment it stared, Ichigo noticed how Dumbledore's eyes turned unfocused and his head started swinging softly, before completely collapsing on his desk. Ichigo blinked twice to make sure that what he was seeing was right, before looking at Hinamori with his eyes wide.

"Hakufuku," Hinamori said quietly when she noticed his expression, "the most reliable way to knock someone unconscious. Plus, they don't remember it afterwards. Whatever you do, Kurosaki-san, don't try to stand up for another couple of minutes. Otherwise you're taking a risk to end up just like Dumbledore-san. You weren't my initial target, but I couldn't protect you from it completely, either."

Ichigo nodded in understanding. "So… now what?" he asked.

"Now, I finish what I came here to do," Hinamori said calmly while she fumbled through her jacket. "He was telling the truth, you know."

"Eh? Really?"

"Yeah. The closest thing to a lie he'd said was when he said he couldn't do much about Snape and even that was partially true," Hinamori said. She smiled a little when she pulled out a device with a snake head. She noticed Ichigo looking at it apprehensively. She shrugged. "Urahara-san said that, since we were apparently trying to act sly and cunning, he'd designed something in the element. I guess he informed himself on Hogwarts prior to our departure."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Figures," was all he said.

The puff of smoke suddenly appearing around the Headmasters head cleared up soon enough.

"So… now what? You've done what you came here to do? Are you going back to the Soul Society?"

"I wish I could, but my heart would never let me," Momo said sorrowfully. "Can you think of any way a human like Dumbledore-san would be able to subdue somebody like Soifon-taichō?"

A bit startled at the question, Ichigo thought back to his very brief fight with Soifon, back when they broke in to stop Rurichiyo's wedding and cringed. He would've been badly beaten up had Rukia not interfered. "Nope. Unless she was really wasted and he was awfully fast. And I'm pretty sure _that_ didn't happen."

"And I happen to share your opinion, which is why I have to confirm it before leaving this place," Hinamori agreed. "Besides, I also have to make sure that Dumbledore doesn't have a secret method of revealing our existence to the Wizarding world. Come on, let's get out of here first, in case the portraits wake up. You should be okay now."

Ichigo frowned as he stood up, his legs feeling almost as if he'd ran a marathon and his head a bit heavy, and followed her out of the office. "But… wait. If something else really happened, why did you just erase his memories?"

Hinamori crossed her arms as they walked out of the circular staircase, frowning as well. "The thing is, I'm not sure," she admitted. "I… I had to follow my orders, and… and it's just a hunch, but I don't think he _knew_ what was really going on. He knew about us, of course, and he obviously did what Soifon-taichō said he did, but… I'm not sure. Something tells me this was just a bad case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but he was smart enough to take advantage of it. What if he tried to do it again?"

"Point," Ichigo muttered. "So what does that leave us with? He doesn't remember what happened, which means he also shouldn't remember why we are here. And McGonagall knows about this little meeting and she'd probably notice if he started acting weird, anyway. How are we gonna explain that?"

Hinamori's mouth hung open for a couple of seconds as she stopped walking. In turn, Ichigo stopped as well, waiting for her to do something. _Any_thing_._

"Err… that's a really good question," she said finally, very quietly.

"Oh, don't tell me…"

"Well," she muttered absently, putting her finger to her chin, "a modified Kikanshinki can only be used once, so there is no a whole lot of memories that will replace the original one – and it's quite a bit stronger. I mean, if I'd used a normal one, Dumbledore-san would've remembered that little episode quite soon… I think."

"The point being?" Ichigo asked impatiently.

"The point is, you'll have to ask Yoruichi-san if she knows which memory Urahara-san had inserted into the device. Or, wait, no. That won't work. Yoruichi-san's gone back to Soul Society… aw…"

"Meaning?" Ichigo asked.

"Meaning…" Hinamori shook her head. "All right, Kurosaki-san, here's what we are going to do. Urahara-san's notebook is with you?"

Ichigo nodded. "Wha—?"

"Good. Then we have to go and get it right now and ask him about it directly. That's what you are going to do."

"Err—"

"Well, if that's clear, I'll see you in Hogsmeade," Momo said and without waiting for a response, she broke into a run.

"Oi, Hinamori! Where the hell are you going?" Ichigo shouted after her.

"I have to speak to Toshiro-kun!" she shouted back and that was the last of her he'd seen before she disappeared into another hall.

Ichigo rubbed the back of his head. "Damn… all these mind games are really starting to give me a headache. And what the hell is she up to now?" _And here I was hoping I could finally leave this place._

He was half-way up to the dorm to get the damn notebook when he met up with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Ichigo! Where are you going?" Hermione asked immediately.

"Back upstairs," Ichigo said. "I have to get some stuff before I can go down."

"Does that mean you and Momo are allowed to go to Hogsmeade?" Ron asked immediately.

Ichigo mentally groaned, almost face-palming himself. _Oh, shit. We didn't really get the permission to go to Hogsmeade, did we? _Regardless, he nodded. It's not as if a lack of permission would stop them.

"Oh, great," Hermione said. "We'll see you at the Hog's Head at noon, is that clear?"

"I'm pretty sure I heard you well the last hundred times," Ichigo grumbled. Much to his surprise, she didn't appear to take it seriously.

"Just making sure," was what she said, rather jovially. For Hermione, anyway.

Ichigo nodded and continued back upstairs while the trio went the opposite way. He frowned over the whole 'asking Urahara' matter. That had never really been proven useful before. All Urahara would do was just complicate the matters further and this was already messed up enough even without him meddling his fingers in it.

* * *

Momo frowned as she walked with Susan and Hannah towards the Hog's Head, thinking back to what she'd talked to Yamada-kun, only about twenty minutes ago.

"_Ah, yes. Yes, I understand. Ano, Hinamori-fukutaichō, Hitsugaya-taichō has offered to speak to you this evening, if it isn't too late. It will take him a while to get here."_

Of course, she had agreed to that. She was sure that not many things could go wrong, seeing as she overheard professor McGonagall speaking to professor Vector about how she was going to go to Hogsmeade herself. Aside from that, Kurosaki-san hadn't managed to get a single word out of Urahara-san and Momo was sure that had to something to do with Urahara-san trying to act mysterious. She'd, predictably, had more luck in convincing him to speak.

_Tobiume, remind me to tell Kurosaki-san how we are going to handle this later, all right?_

"_Duly noted,"_ Tobiume responded lazily.

"Hannah, can you go and take a seat for us?" Susan said, reminding Momo that she couldn't be lost in thought at that moment. "Momo and I will be on our way shortly."

"Yeah, sure," Hannah said and went on.

Momo eyed Susan curiously. "We will?" she asked. "Why are we stopping?"

Susan looked at her thoughtfully and bluntly, in her special way, she asked, "Have you done something to frustrate Hermione Granger?"

"No," Momo responded, bewildered at the prospect. "At least I don't think I have. Why?"

"Nothing," Susan said. "Just asking."

"Are you sure it's nothing? I don't think you'd be asking it at all if it was really nothing," Momo remarked.

Now, Susan appeared to be uncomfortable. "Well," she said, looking anywhere but at Momo, "I just get this feeling that she doesn't like you very much."

"That's new," Momo whispered, more to herself than to Susan. "Where did that come from? I… I think I get along with her just fine. Hermione-chan is really interesting."

"I guess it's probably nothing, really," Susan sighed. "You see, she didn't really want to invite you on this little gathering. It wasn't until Hannah mentioned she could tell you that I noticed, but I don't think she likes you very much. I was just wondering why."

Momo felt a little bit awkward, now. _I'm pretty sure I never gave her a reason to be upset with me, _she thought.

"_Jealousy, maybe?" _Tobiume offered.

_Hermione doesn't really strike me as the type. I guess I _could _ask her about it… But what would she be jealous of?_

"_Nah, totally not worth it. It's not like you're friends or anything."_

_Point, I guess. Still, why does this upset me?_

"_You're one complicated girl, Momo," _Tobiume sighed. _"You're bothering with a lot of things that aren't important these days…"_

"I don't know," Momo told Susan finally, ignoring her Zanpakuto's words, mostly because she didn't know how to answer it. "I really don't think I've done anything to upset her. Maybe you're just imagining it and she's… I don't know. I mean, she certainly never seemed that way around me."

"Well, that's what makes it confusing," Susan admitted, shaking her head, long braid flying around. "We should go inside. It's probably about to start, anyway."

Momo nodded and followed Susan into the shady bar. What greeted her there was quite a larger group than what she'd expected when Hermione first mentioned the whole thing. She spotted Kurosaki-san at the other corner of the room, next to a few other Gryffindor boys.

"Cheers," one of the Weasley twins said, pushing a Butterbeer in both Susan and Momo's hands.

"Cough up, everyone. I haven't got enough gold for all of these."

"Did he say how much?" Momo asked to Susan.

"Two sickles," Hannah supplied as she passed the coins to the twin. Momo and Susan mimicked her.

"Err," they heard Hermione say, her voice slightly higher than usual. "Well-err-hi."

Momo looked at her curiously. She only heard the basics of what that meeting was supposed to be about and hopefully Hermione would now explain it a bit better. She wasn't really sure what she was doing there, but if it was something absolutely useless, she should at least know so she'd be able to get out before its too late.

"Well… err… well, you know why you're here—"

"Not really," Momo muttered in her chin. After all, she was only there because Hannah asked her and the whole thing seemed interesting.

"—Err… well, Harry here had the idea—I mean, I had the idea—that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts—and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us—because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts—"

"Hear, hear," one of the Ravenclaw boys said. Momo wasn't sure if his name was Terry or Anthony, but it didn't really matter, anyway.

"—Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

Hermione paused, looked sideways at Harry and went on, "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells—"

_No wonder she got Kurosaki-kun interested,_ Momo thought absently, taking the time to look through the shady window of the bar. Not much of a landscape could she see, much to her disappointment.

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" said the other Ravenclaw from her year, Michael, if Momo remembered right.

"Of course I do," said Hermione momentarily. "But more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because… because…" she took a great breath and finished, "because Lord Voldemort is back."

The reaction was immediate and predictable. That Marietta girl from Ravenclaw shrieked and slopped Butterbeer down herself; Terry (or Anthony, Momo wasn't sure) gave a kind of involuntary twitch; Padma-chan shuddered, Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough and Kurosaki-kun scoffed. Momo herself almost sighed exasperatedly.

_But why are they all looking at Harry-kun so eagerly?_

"Well ... that's the plan, anyway," Hermione said. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to—"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?"

"Zach-kun," Momo said silently as she recognized the voice. With several others, she turned to look at the blond boy from her house.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it—" Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," Zach said, nodding at Harry.

"Who are you?" Ron asked, rather rudely.

"Zacharias Smith," Zach said, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about—"

"It's OK, Hermione," said Potter, the look on his face strongly reminding Momo of Toshiro-kun when he was looking especially annoyed. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he repeated, looking at Zach. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

"All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts," Zach said. "He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know—"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," Potter said. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

Basing on what little she knew about her schoolmates, Momo was almost expecting half the people to leave, but she was surprised when everybody stayed in their spots, unmoving. She frowned at the other occupants of the bar that seemed to be listening as well. _Well, that might cause trouble…_

"So," said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. "So… like I was saying… if you want to learn some Defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to—"

Momo noticed the look on Susan's face only a second before she interrupted Hermione, focusing on Potter instead.

"Is it true that you can produce a Patronus?"

"Yeah," Potter said, slightly defensively.

"A corporeal Patronus?" Susan wanted to know.

"Err—you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" he asked.

Susan smiled.

"She's my auntie," she said. "I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So—is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes," said Potter.

"Blimey, Harry!" said Lee, looking deeply impressed. "I never knew that!"

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," said one of the twins, grinning at Potter. "She said you got enough attention as it was."

"What is a Patronus?" Momo asked to Susan quietly after their small debate was finished.

"The only way to repel Dementors," Susan informed her.

"To repel what?" Momo repeated, but it didn't appear as if Susan heard that.

"And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" Terry (yes, Momo finally managed to make a difference) demanded at about the same time. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year."

"Err—yeah, I did, yeah," Potter admitted.

Justin-kun whistled; two Gryffindor boys exchanged awestruck looks and Lavender-chan said 'Wow!' softly. Momo was on the verge of asking what a basilisk was, but she held back. Apparently, Potter had a knack of getting in trouble almost as much as Kurosaki-san and that really didn't sound like a smart question. She'd pry it out of Susan later, after all.

"And in our first year," Neville said to the group at large, "he saved that Philological Stone—"

"Philosopher's," Hermione hissed.

"Yes, that-from You-Know-Who," Neville finished.

"And that's not to mention," said Cho, "all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year—getting past dragons and merpeople and Acromantula and things."

There was a murmur of impressed agreement throughout the bar.

"Look," Harry said, and everyone fell silent at once, "I… I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but… I had a lot of help with all that stuff…"

"Not with the dragon, you didn't," said Michael immediately. "That was a seriously cool bit of flying …"

"Yeah, well—"

"And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer," Susan pointed out.

"No," Harry agreed, "no, OK, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is—"

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zach asked.

"Here's an idea," Ron said loudly, before Harry could speak, "why don't you shut your mouth?"

Zacharias flushed. "Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said.

"That's not what he said," snarled Fred.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" enquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred.

"Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, "moving on… the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of general agreement. Zach folded his arms and said nothing, though was probably because he was too busy keeping an eye on the instrument in Fred's hand.

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved that something had been settled. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week—"

"Hang on," said one of the older Gryffindor girls, "we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"No," Cho said quickly, "nor with ours."

"Nor ours," added Zach.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione, slightly impatiently, "but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters—"

"Well said!" barked Ernie, who Momo hadn't even noticed was there; he was uncharacteristically silent. "Personally, I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our OWLs coming up! I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher on us at this critical period. Obviously, they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells—"

"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione said, "is that she's got some… some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."

"_Well, seeing the way he tried to use us, I wouldn't say that theory is too far fetched," _Tobiume piped up.

_I don't think so, _Momo replied. _To use students to influence opinion of their families, perhaps. But an outright army? I doubt it. I think he's got more sense than that. Or if nothing else, he's still got morals._

"_Whatever."_

Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news, though.

A blonde Ravenclaw girl who'd Momo seen around, but hadn't yet talked to said, "Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army."

"What?" Potter asked, confused as much as Momo was.

"Yes, he's got an army of Heliopaths," said the girl solemnly.

"No, he hasn't," Hermione snapped.

"Yes, he has," the girl countered.

"What are Heliopaths?" Neville asked, looking blank.

"They're spirits of fire," the girl explained. "Great tall flaming creatures that gallop across the ground burning everything in front of—"

"They don't exist," Hermione cut her off.

"Oh, yes, they do!" the other girl insisted.

"I'm sorry, but where's the proof—"

"Err, I'm pretty sure that's not the point right now," Momo said uncertainly.

"Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and have Defense lessons?" a girl from Gryffindor added.

"Yes," Hermione agreed, "yes, we were, you're right, Ginny."

"Well, once a week sounds cool," said a taller boy from Gryffindor. Momo found herself looking at his hair for a couple of seconds, blinking. She looked away as soon as she saw him looking at her.

"As long as—"

"Yes, yes, we know about the Quidditch," said Hermione in a tense voice. "Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet…"

Silence met her words.

"Library?" suggested one of the Gryffindor girls after a few moments.

"I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library," Harry pointed out.

"Maybe an unused classroom?" offered the boy standing next to Kurosaki-san, Dean, if Momo recalled well.

"Yeah," said Ron-kun, "McGonagall might let us have hers, she did when Harry was practicing for the Tri wizard."

"Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," Hermione sighed. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting."

She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, almost as if she was steeling herself to say something.

"I—I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think," she took a deep breath, "that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anybody else what we're up to."

The twins reached out for the parchment and cheerfully wrote their signatures, but Momo noticed that several people looked less than happy at the prospect of putting their names on the list.

"Err…" Zach-kun said slowly, not taking the parchment that George was trying to pass to him, "well… I'm sure Ernie will tell me when the meeting is."

But Ernie was looking rather hesitant about signing, too.

Momo sighed, taking the parchment from George and the quill. It surprised quite a number of students present. "Umm… Do I have to sign it in English?"

"Err—not really, no, I guess," Hermione said.

"_You're seriously participating this? Oh, come on, Momo! You have got to stop doing this to yourself! This has nothing to do with you!" _Tobiume whined.

_But Kurosaki-san is participating and I need a good excuse to be around him, now. I don't care much, but it'd be easier to go through this school without people asking me whether we're going out or not. You know how tiring Leanne-chan can be._

"_Well, it's not like going out with Ichigo-kun is a bad thing," _Tobiume pointed out.

Momo frowned a little, dignifiedly ignoring that statement. _Well, writing Kanji with a quill is going to be complicated, I guess. _"English it is," she decided after a few moments, scribing her name calmly. She pushed the parchment towards Susan, who took it and signed, then passed it over to Hannah.

"Have those two sign it. They're really slow," Susan said, passing the parchment and quill back to Momo.

Momo looked at them expectantly, knowing that both Ernie and Zach heard her. "Well?"

"I… err… but we're prefects…"

Hermione gave him a look

"Ernie, do you really think I'd leave that list lying around?" she asked testily.

"No. No, of course not," said Ernie, looking slightly less anxious. "I-yes, of course I'll sign."

Nobody raised objections after Ernie, though Momo noticed Marietta give a rather reproachful look to Cho before adding her own name. When the last person—Kurosaki-san—had signed, Hermione took the parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag. There was an odd feeling in the group now. It was as though they had just signed some kind of contract.

"Well, time's ticking on," said Fred briskly, getting to his feet. "George, Lee and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."

"Yeah, we should also go," Parvati added, though she was looking at Kurosaki-san, not Hermione. "I still owe you that Butterbeer."

"Oh, right," Kurosaki-san mumbled. He cast one look at Momo, but she just shook her head, mouthing 'later' at him. She wasn't sure if he caught it, but he didn't hesitate on leaving after that.

"Are we leaving too?" Momo asked to Susan curiously.

"Of course. There's so much about the village that I have yet to show you," Susan said as she headed out. Momo followed, waving back at Hermione, Ron-kun and Harry. "So, where to first?" she asked.

Susan grinned. "Honeyduke's, where else?"

* * *

"I see," Toshiro said as Hinamori explained the situation to him and rubbed his templates. They were standing at the Astronomy tower, Toshiro, Hinamori and Kira, and it was about eight in the evening. It was one of the more secluded parts of the school and even if someone was looking in their direction, they probably wouldn't be able to see them. The night was clear, but windy, with many stars looking as if they were dancing in the dark sky.

Toshiro sighed. "Well, your guess is as good as mine," he said at the expectant look he was getting. "Kira can keep an eye on that professor you're worried about and I'll fill in for him. In the meantime, you just go back to whatever you were up to before, because I don't see any other way to deal with this."

"All right," Hinamori agreed. "So even if my mission is technically finished, I'm granted the permission to stay and make sure that there isn't anything going on off screen?"

"You're forgetting your mission," Toshiro said snappily. "It isn't just erasing the old man's memories, Hinamori. You've also got to make sure that there isn't a way he can follow up on his threat. I'm pretty sure you haven't yet done that."

She grinned. "Nope, I haven't."

Toshiro just rolled his eyes. He raised an eyebrow, though, when her grin disappeared, replaced by a somewhat confused expression. "Something the matter?" he asked.

Hinamori shook her head. "No, not really. I just think I'm forgetting something. Something about the defense thing," she said. "Anyway, thank you, Hitsugaya-kun!"

She ignored him completely when he told her to call him Hitsugaya-taichō.

"I'm off now. I have to reassure Kurosaki-san, he was looking pretty interested in what's going on and there're still those girls in my house. They can be really curious, you know?"

"Hinamori," Toshiro called after her as she turned to leave.

"Yes?" She stopped, looking at him curiously.

Toshiro's eyes drifted towards the sky. "Be careful," he said. "I have a really bad feeling about all this."

He saw her pause, not exactly sure how to react. In the end, she settled for a small, honest smile, before saying, "Yeah, me too." The next moment, she Shunpoed away.

Toshiro looked at Kira briefly. "Go keep an eye on that McGonagall," he said. "I'll take over from here."

"Hai, Hitsugaya-taichō," Kira agreed immediately, disappearing with a Shunpo as well.

Toshiro stood alone at the tower, overlooking the grounds thoughtfully. _So Hinamori was able to handle Dumbledore without much trouble at only one fifth of her usual power with Hakufuku. If I assume that it really was Dumbledore who had subdued Soifon, then it would technically make Hinamori more skillful than Soifon, which is downright impossible. Thus, I rely on the fact that Soifon's memories are messed up and that, hypothetically, Hinamori is right and there was somebody else involved, which would then make Dumbledore the third party. At the same time, Hinamori suspects Dumbledore to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, but what makes him dangerous is that he can think of a way to make use of the situation._

Mentally, Toshiro groaned. He was already getting a headache and Matsumoto wasn't even around.

_Okay, from that I can conclude that there is another party involved. But… what for? I suppose I could try contacting Avalon, see if they have any means of handling this, but… _but if he remembered right, their condition was still catastrophic. During their war with the traitors, they'd lost two Generals (their equivalents of the Captains in Gotei Thirteen) two had defected and one had been, according to Soifon, on a deathbed while she'd been there, but the status was as of yet unconfirmed. And there are supposed to be seven Generals in total.

_And we thought we were off badly, _Toshiro thought absently. _Makes it weird they still offered to send an officer to help if needed._

Kira's duty was basically keeping an eye on both Kurosaki and Dumbledore, but as the latter had been handled and the former was once again spiritually aware, there wasn't much work. _I can completely dismiss Kuchiki and Yamada for now. Seireitei could use some officers at the moment._

Toshiro jumped off the tower, heading towards the forest. He at least now had the time to explore the grounds. _Hopefully, Captain Commander isn't going to notice a report coming in late._

* * *

"All right, so if I got this right, you just said that the old man thinks we're some top secret spies from Japanese Ministry, here to find out everything we can about the British Ministry and Dumbledore is covering for us because he's pissed off at his Ministry?" Ichigo repeated, his voice sounding largely skeptical.

"Well, yes, in a nutshell" Hinamori said. "Urahara-san explained it a bit more as a 'we needed a backup story in case there was something more happening' type of a situation. I'm pretty sure he knew from the beginning that not everything was the way it seemed to be."

They were in one of the classrooms, protected by Hinamori's barrier in order for Ichigo to get some training. However, seeing as this was only the first chance they'd gotten to talk after the Hogsmeade trip, they used the opportunity for Hinamori to explain where exactly they were standing. Oh, and it was about midnight.

"You're aware that what you said just now sounds ridiculous, right?" Ichigo mumbled.

Hinamori scratched the back of her head with an awkward smile.

Ichigo almost groaned. "Right… So, what can we do to keep other professors off of our back if they happen to notice something odd?"

"Kira-kun is handling that," Hinamori replied. "I'm not sure what he's going to do, but rest assured. We're safe."

"You sure about that?"

"Yep. Ready to get back to training now?" she asked. "Just Hakuda for the beginning, then we can kick it up with Kido later."

"Err—" He was about to say that she could tone it down on Kido, but she didn't appear to be listening to him at all.

"Ready… set… go!"

* * *

Weekend, despite Harry's most sincere wishes, could not continue on forever. And while he had truthfully enjoyed it, even despite the fact that he'd spent most of it doing homework (on the bright side, he had at least done it outside), there was a strong feeling bubbling inside of him, something that felt _so_ right that he couldn't even explain it.

They were fighting Umbridge. They were fighting the Ministry, their principles, their utterly stupid laws, even. It left him feeling giddy with excitement and suppressed desire to actually go out and do something immediately, rather than wait for the next meeting to roll around – and he wasn't even sure when that was going to happen.

So even despite Monday being, well, _Monday, _the _worst _day of the week he'd yet had, Harry went down for breakfast feeling rather energized. But that's when things started going south.

He was with Ron and Hermione when he read the news about Educational Decree number Twenty-Four. It had been, for the most part, an unpleasant surprise. On the inside, he kept thinking _'She knew! She knew! She knew!' _restlessly and that was the only thought in his mind for quite a while.

The rest of the day went by with Harry feeling much angrier, much more furious with Umbridge than ever before. But even more, he hated Monday. First they'd nearly blown the whole thing by so many people trying to ask if they were quitting with the defense group first thing they saw him. Then, in History of Magic, Hedwig returned, injured, and Harry immediately took her to Grubbly-Plank for a treatment. Sirius' note was unnerving, and Harry couldn't help but wonder what exactly Sirius wanted to talk to him about _now_? Could things get any worse?

Unfortunately, it was a never good thing to ask that. As a response, he'd gotten to see Umbridge earlier than he should have. And then he didn't get marks again in potions, purely because Snape was… Snape – one that seemed to be having the same lousy Monday as Harry.

Harry couldn't understand why he felt somewhat better after the same happened to Ichigo, whose potion wasn't even that wrongly done. It had been much better than Harry's, anyway. The transfer really didn't seem to appreciate Snape's actions, however, and Harry realized that Snape did, in fact, dislike Ichigo Kurosaki as much as he disliked Harry. Why, though, Harry couldn't even begin to speculate.

It was after Potions that things got even worse. Malfoy, being the pompous prick as always, started taunting Harry and Ron because the Slytherin Quidditch team got the permission to continue playing immediately. Then he even steeped lower, taunting Ron, then Harry, mentioning St. Mungo…

But that's when things got out of hand.

Harry was literally pushed aside as Neville got past him, straight towards Malfoy. It was only instinct that Harry managed to grab Neville's robes and keep him from flattening the Slytherin. Neville struggled frantically and Harry was barely holding him still. He half-yelled to Ron to help him when Ichigo showed up, holding Neville in place with ease which shocked Harry. Hastily, he let go of Neville's robes without even noticing. However, he forgot all about it when he saw the expression of utter surprise on Malfoy's face.

"No! Let me go! Not – funny – don't – Mungo – show him..."

Everyone who had gotten out of Snape's class – and those who were just about to have one – stopped to see what was happening. Harry heard one very familiar voice trying to fight through the crowd and see what was going on. Suddenly, he was very glad that Ichigo's hold was much firmer than his own.

"Did he deserve it?" Ichigo asked, rather calmly.

Neville blinked at the question, momentarily confused. "What?"

"You were about to pummel that guy. Did he deserve it?"

"Y-yes..."

Ichigo seemed to be looking in his eyes for a second, then, coming to a conclusion, he removed his hand. One could see in Malfoy's eyes that the Slytherin knew this was not boding well for him, but he seemed to be rooted to the spot, only reaching for his wand.

A split second was all it took for Neville to cross significantly small distance and dislocate Malfoy's jaw before the other boy's hand even gripped the wand.

Most of the students, such as Pansy Parkinson, screamed.

Others, like Ron, burst out laughing.

It didn't help that Neville didn't look as if he was finished and Ichigo didn't look as if he was about to stop him. In fact, it was looking just as if he was preparing to help, if rolling of his sleeves was any indication, and Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be doing the same.

Harry had, of course, leapt after Neville, trying to pull him away from Malfoy, when he – and the rest of the corridor – heard a shriek.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN IS GOING ON HERE?"

Needles to say, it didn't end well.

Pansy Parkinson jumped immediately to explain everything to Umbridge – and seconds later Snape – who came to find out what the hold was about. It resulted with Gryffindor losing a hundred points, Ichigo and Neville getting in a week-long detention with Umbridge and one very unsubtle threat by Umbridge that if either of them tried to pull off anything again, they'd be expelled.

That, unfortunately, wasn't the end of the Catastrophic Monday.

Sometime later, in Divination, Harry learned that Trelawney was put on probation and she was rather short-tempered during the whole lesson. And while nothing really happened during Defense Against the Dark Arts, Ichigo's absence was rather notable. Not a single student in the class could tell what he was thinking with antagonizing Umbridge even further. He was one step away from expulsion, anyway.

"I don't have a clue," Neville told them during dinner when Hermione concernedly asked him about detention that evening. "And I have a really bad feeling about it, and then Ichigo tells me he doesn't have any intention of going. Now I'm not sure if I should or shouldn't go. I really don't want to go alone."

"Did Ichigo say why he doesn't want to go?" Harry asked. It struck him as odd, because he considered Ichigo to be someone who at least had respect for professors. He hadn't hesitated at all when Snape had put them in detention earlier, after all. Was it just because it was Umbridge, this time?

Neville shrugged, sulking. "Said he hadn't done anything wrong, so he isn't about to take any detention. Said I shouldn't either."

"Would it be weird if I said that looks just like him?" Ron asked rhetorically. "I guess we can expect Momo coming to give him a lesson any minute now."

But Ron was wrong, and Momo didn't appear at the Gryffindor table. Ichigo himself was absent until nearly the end of the dinner, and when he came, he only grabbed some food and looked at Neville questioningly.

"You're really going to attend that detention?"

Neville looked back at him, concernedly. "Well, it is going to cause more trouble than it is worth if I don't," he said quietly. "Are you really going to skive off?"

Harry noticed that the look in Ichigo's eyes was uncomfortable and of general uneasiness, especially when he said he wasn't yet sure about it.

However, Harry didn't know if either of them attended Umbridge's detention. Even later that night, after the talk with Sirius and learning that their secret defense group wasn't so secret anymore, Harry hadn't seen either of them come back and while it was generally normal for Ichigo not to show up in bed until sometime around two in the morning, it certainly wasn't so for Neville. Harry would only admit it to himself that he was only a slightest bit worried about both of them. Neville more, however. Neville much, much more.

To make matters worse, Umbridge apparently caught onto Sirius invading the Gryffindor Tower through Floo Network and tried to grab him. Harry, Ron and Hermione had instantly ran over to their dorms with a heavy feeling that Umbridge knew exactly where Sirius' hair had been a moment ago and was determined to seize it.

And as he drifted off to sleep, much later, Harry realized one thing. He would never, _ever,_ hate Mondays as much as he hated them now. They brought nothing but bad, _lousy_ bad luck, especially to him.

* * *

How many of you saw that coming? Eh? Eh? Let me see your hands!

All right, so Dumbledore's out of the game for now, Toshiro is worried and Ichigo and Neville have gotten themselves into detention with Umbridge... That doesn't bode well... And Momo should seriously start thinking before she acts. At this rate, she's gonna make this whole thing all the more difficult.

Reviews, as always, are appreciated!


	12. Chapter 11: The point of no return

Honestly, I wanted to update this tomorrow, but... you see how that turned out. To be honest, I'm not entirely satisfied with this. Some places were awkward in my opinion, some others a bit bland, but what can I say? Apparently, school's almost as chaotic as Rush Hour, but not even nearly as interesting. Meh. Guess no two chapters per week until holidays... and that's in May... but then in June it's summer vacation... darn, I can't wait! Anyway, enough with my rant. On to the chapter!

* * *

Chapter 11: The point of no return

It was soon after dinner and Neville was heading towards Umbridge's office when Ichigo caught up with him. They walked up the stairs in silence and just when Neville was about to turn towards the corridor leading to the office of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Ichigo asked, "So, you gonna tell me what got you so riled up earlier?"

He got a look from Neville that made it obvious the other boy didn't want to talk about it. As soon as he noticed it, Ichigo waved his hands.

"Err, you don't have to answer! I mean, I'm curious, yeah. You're more of a pacifist than even Inoue and yet you… err… anyway, you don't have to answer. It's not like it's any of my business."

For several seconds, they just stood there, looking at each other, before Neville nodded and looked away. "Thanks… I don't really want to talk about it."

Ichigo nodded.

Some more silence, then—

"So, you're really not coming?"

"Err…" Ichigo really wasn't sure what to say now. On one hand, he'd rather get into another fist-fight than walk into that woman's office. On the other, Neville was obviously shaken, determined, there was a plea in his voice and it was partly Ichigo's fault they were in this mess in the first place… Ichigo wasn't sure what to do about that.

"Argh, damn. Fine, fine. What kind of a bastard would I be if I let you go alone?"

After that, Neville considerably brightened up.

"But you aren't going to… just walk out if you don't like it?" Neville asked quietly as they ascended the stairs.

"Of course I will."

"Even if it gets you in more trouble? I mean, we have a whole week to go. You can't avoid her for five days," Neville pointed out reasonably.

Ichigo groaned as they approached Umbridge's office. "Well, I wasn't intending to avoid her. Just… I don't see any point in going. It's not like it changes anything."

"So you really don't care about what happens after?"

"After?" Ichigo echoed.

"After school, I mean. You can end up being expelled if you give Umbridge any reason to pull the strings and what are you going to do then? Go back home? If anything I know about Japan is right, then you'll probably be in trouble there, too. Sure, you live there, not me, but if I'm right, you're risking everything in order to spite a not very bright teacher. Feels like a waste."

Ichigo's steps slowed as he drifted off. _After? As in… the future?_

"Ichigo?" Neville asked.

Ichigo didn't react immediately. He thought about it, about the future, a little. He'd heard a similar question a couple of times and naturally, his response was that he'd wanted to finish high school first, then college. Had anyone asked him about it even before he'd gotten involved into all the afterlife, later wizard stuff, he wouldn't have had an applicable answer. Now, though, he had one even less.

"Let's go. We're already five minutes late," was what he said after another couple of seconds slipped away.

Thankfully, Neville didn't push the subject.

When they got to the door of the office, they knocked, then entered at the muffled 'come in' from Umbridge. They were barely two steps inside when they stopped short, just staring at the whole new _world_ of color they'd just walked into.

It was pink. Everything was drenched in freaking _pink_. Not the soft, in-some-cases-acceptable pink, nor that dark-shade that was almost violet. It was Yachiru's hair like pink, if not worse. For a first time that evening, Ichigo actually had qualms about making another step into that office. He'd be literally ruining every last piece of his dignity if he—

Neville looked at him questioningly, but it was obvious his thoughts were quite similar, and Ichigo found himself entering, focusing on the only non-pink thing in the room – window. Even the _desk_ was covered in some pink cloth. Briefly, Ichigo wondered if perhaps she failed to find a pink desk. Otherwise everything would have been in tune. The kitten plates did not help the matter at all.

"Good evening, Mr. Longbottom, Mr. Kurosaki," the falsely sweet voice came from the other part of the room.

"Evening, professor Umbridge," Neville said stiffly.

Ichigo refused to say a word, just glaring ahead of him. _Why exactly am I here again? _He side-glanced at Neville and resisted the urge to curse.

Umbridge looked at him, a small, evil smile lurking at the corner of her lips. "Now, now, that won't do, Mr. Kurosaki. I was under impressions that students were supposed to have manners. Let's try again. Good evening, Mr. Kurosaki."

"Evening, professor," he managed to mutter.

"Well, that's better. Now, about your detention." Her smile widened as she dropped a stack of papers in his arms. "I'd like you to take this to professor Snape, the first half, and the second one to the Headmaster. Then you get back here for the rest of your detention, is that clear?"

Ichigo gave the smallest of nods before turning to leave. Anything so he wouldn't have to stay in that place.

"Oh, and give the last paper in the first stack to Professor Sprout, please, Mr. Kurosaki!"

The door shut behind him. Ichigo groaned as he looked down at the papers in his hands. At this rate, he was never going to be finished. Hell if he knew where each of those offices was.

* * *

Dolores Umbridge, despite the popular opinion, was in no way stupid, incompetent or oblivious of the things going on behind her back. Mind you, she was very well aware of two rather different types of conspiracies that were happening at Hogwarts.

The first one, the one which was an immediate problem that she was hoping she'd be able to deal with soon, was the issue with the students themselves. They were naturally dissatisfied with the notion of not being able to practice magic and while Umbridge was well aware that it was only a matter of time before a secret organization would come to existence, she did not expect it to start out so obviously _and _so quickly. However, she was also proud to say that if nothing else, she'd already halted the uprising rebellion of the students by that Decree.

The second conspiracy was the one that she could not yet deal with, if for the simple lack of proof of the conspiracy even existing. Umbridge knew for a fact that Shino Academy of Magic did not exist. Mahoutokoro was the most notable school of magic in Japan and it was most certainly not the only one, but Japan's policy was different than what Shino Academy suggested it to be. While isolationists, Japanese were not all about keeping secrets and their techniques to themselves. In fact, they were quite open in contact, if only a bit protective over their knowledge.

Thus, on that first day of classes, Umbridge knew that the purpose of Ichigo Kurosaki and Momo Hinamori at Hogwarts was something other than just studying. It didn't help that Kurosaki was a blatant troublemaker and Hinamori practically untouchable.

During her first lesson with the Gryffindors, Umbridge had been practically baiting Potter, wanting to put him in detention, to squash his self-confidence and close that big mouth of his. It was going splendidly up until the time the rest of the class had gotten involved. That's where she realized she was dealing with a group of stereotypical Gryffindors, not just any students. All brawn, no brain.

Kurosaki, however, was not something she had been expecting. Nor did she expect the rest of the class to simply fall silent the moment he left.

And yes, she had been trying to frustrate all of them, see how they would handle it. She hadn't even cared about the presence of the transfer student. She'd only started considering him more after he had simply walked out of her class as if he hadn't felt obligated to sit there.

Kurosaki had literally turned it against her by doing whatever he wanted and leaving _her_ unable to do anything to stop him. Sure, she could have assigned detention later, but she had doubted he'd appear and that was _not_ enough to bring him under control. It had only been confirmed throughout the rest of the classes she'd had with the Gryffindors.

His absence in her classes and her apparent displeasure had created many rumors about Dolores wanting to expel him, to get him out of 'her' territory and make sure he did not, in anyway, affect her order. She might as well had confirmed it when she threatened him and Longbottom earlier that day and she certainly had no qualms about letting other students think that way. However, Dolores wanted Kurosaki _under control_, not expelled.

Her plans for putting Potter under some torture were thwarted by a simple unknown that she hadn't listed in the equation before, but she sure did so now.

That was what Kurosaki was – an unknown. He didn't stand for authority. However, he did not go against it just for the heck of it. If anything, he followed his own set of rules and morals and did not care about anyone else's opinion. His allegiance, motives, origin and purpose were as of yet unclear, thus it made him both a potential ally and a formidable enemy. Even the fact that Kurosaki spent most of his days in the library didn't change Dolores' opinion. Dumbledore had something in plan with the transfers, she just didn't see what. Not _yet_, at any rate.

That, of course, meant she couldn't overlook Momo Hinamori, either. The girl was unassuming, resourceful, surprisingly charming _and_ adaptive. She was everything Kurosaki _was not_, thus it made her more of a threat than Kurosaki could ever hope to be. Hinamori was practically untouchable, because she wasn't giving Umbridge any reason to talk to her. Hinamori paid her proper respect. She followed instructions in class. She knew the answers to most of the random questions Umbridge would ask from the lessons and she did not rise to any bait she would place.

It only served to show Dolores that if she wanted the truth behind the transfers, her only route was through Kurosaki who had made himself an easy target. Even more so after that stunt with Longbottom. Everything just fell into place after that and as Umbridge was the first professor to appear, she had willingly taken over the detention for the two Gryffindors. Snape was almost too happy to oblige, if she read the expression on his face right.

In other words, Umbridge now had a perfect way to deal with Kurosaki's disobedience. She could torture both of them into submission and the word would probably spread soon enough, but that didn't matter all that much. She could not, however, do that with two of them in the same room. It was recipe for a disaster.

Kurosaki was defiant enough so that he would gladly break away from her hold, rather than accept her authority. Placing him in detention alone would be of no use at all, as he would either not come, or would, and after realizing what she was having him do, he would throw a fit, perhaps even get the word to the Headmaster and that could possibly be the end of her. Sure, that could still happen, but she wanted to believe that Longbottom was good enough of a trump card.

No, Kurosaki could not be dealt with alone, which was why Dolores had preferably wanted Potter there at the same time.

Potter was arrogant enough and prideful and his personality would literally force him to endure her punishment for the simple sake of his pride and stubbornness. He would easily convince both Kurosaki to stay and would make sure that the word of it did not leave her office.

However, Longbottom, as it turned out, was an even better match. Dolores couldn't tell for sure what Longbottom would do, but she was smart enough to know that he was neither as defiant as Kurosaki, nor stubborn enough like Potter. He would endure the torture and succumb to authority wordlessly, not even trying to stand up for himself. And that was what made the pair of them perfect.

Longbottom would not stand up to her and Kurosaki would not turn his back on Longbottom. In other words, so long as they weren't using the Blood Quill at the same time, her victory was a given.

Thus, once they showed up in her office, Dolores sent Kurosaki out to do the errands that would lead him from one end of the castle to another for at least two hours, leaving Longbottom all on his own. After that, all she needed to do was make sure that Longbottom is out of the office when she gives the Quill to Kurosaki. It was a clever plan. A brilliant one. Absolutely foolproof.

Unfortunately, if she was right – and she did not, for a single moment, think otherwise – it was a plan that would only work for a single night. For the rest of the week, she would have to come up with something clever. Something really, really smart. Brilliant, even.

"Well," she said after the door behind Kurosaki closed. "Now it is your turn, Mr. Longbottom."

She saw the boy tense.

"Oh don't worry, you'll just be doing some lines for me," she said sweetly. "Take a seat, please."

Longbottom did, apprehensively looking at the parchment already prepared for him. He reached for his bag, probably to get his quill, but Dolores didn't let him. "No, there's no need for your quill, Mr. Longbottom. You'll be using a special one of mine."

"Oh…"

"You will write 'Violence is not a solution'," she instructed sweetly as she gave him her quill. "Don't you hesitate now. There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of."

"You forgot the ink, professor," the boy said hesitantly.

"Oh, don't worry about that. You won't need any ink."

Longbottom nodded hesitantly and started writing. The following hiss of pain she'd heard only made it harder to cover the grin that was threatening to split her face in two.

The boy looked up at her, his face of sheer horror as he realized what exactly she was having him do, but that quickly changed into utter devastation when it occurred to him that there was no single thing he could do about it, other than follow the instructions.

It was one of the rare times Dolores felt especially satisfied with how often her plans had a tendency to fall into place.

* * *

It had taken Ichigo almost two hours to find his way back to Umbridge's office, though, frankly, he wouldn't have minded getting lost once again. Running errands, while it felt stupid, was also infinitely better than sitting locked up in that awful office. Even better it was that the he hadn't had to face Dumbledore, as McGonagall opted to take the papers instead because the Headmaster was busy. But leaving Neville all on his own with that woman didn't sit well with him at all. He just didn't like that grin plastered to her face, but when push came to shove, what could she do?

_A lot,_ his subconscious supplied. It didn't mean that whatever she'd do would be effective, though.

He knocked on the door of the office and even before hearing the 'come in', he walked inside.

Neville was sitting at one of the smaller desks by Umbridge's big one with a pained expression and a quill in his hand. _What's she gonna do? Bore me to death with lines?_

Umbridge, upon noticing him, smiled widely. "Ah, you're finished, Mr. Kurosaki. How productive of you. Well, then, take a seat." She gestured at the second available small desk in the room. "Oh, and you can go, Mr. Longbottom. We'll be continuing on tomorrow."

Neville nodded and quickly picked up his stuff before practically bolting out of the office. Ichigo noticed that Neville seemed to have purposely avoided his look, but it wasn't an explanation to his suddenly odd behavior.

_Heh, I'll ask him about it later,_ Ichigo thought as he took the seat. There was a paper ready out there for him and he reached for his single pen before Umbridge shook her head.

"No, no, no, Mr. Kurosaki, there's no need for your quill," she said immediately. "You'll be using a special one of mine."

And she literally pushed a thin, black quill into his hand, the same one that Neville had been using seconds ago. Ichigo looked at it, slightly put off. "Err… I'm not exactly very good when writing with quills," he said. "During the first week alone I broke at least four of those. Completely gave up on trying later."

He noticed an odd look she'd given him, before she just shook her head and smiled sweetly. "Even so, Mr. Kurosaki, this is a part of your punishment so yes, you are going to have to use the quill. Is that clear?"

Ichigo shrugged. "'kay, I guess," he mumbled. "So… what should I write?"

"Oh, you are going to write 'I must respect authority'," she told him.

Ichigo raised a questioning eyebrow. _Err… what? Is that supposed to make me respect her or something? _"How many times?" he asked instead.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to _sink in_," she told him cheerfully.

Ichigo shrugged only, but much about this didn't seem all that thrilling. He didn't even notice the absence of the ink until he actually started writing. The sharp pain over the back of his hand kicked in as soon as he'd finished writing the sentence. For a second he just stared at the blood red words on the paper and the place where it hurt only moments ago, just in time to see those same words appear, then disappear on his skin; heal.

From there on it took less than a second to make a connection.

Just to confirm it, though, he wrote it down one more time. He mentally cursed when the words once again disappeared, leaving only red, slightly raw skin behind and a sensation of a razor slicing in his skin that would go away as soon as the cuts closed.

Pain he could deal with, though.

What he couldn't deal with that easily was the fact that he most certainly wasn't the first person put under such a method of detention.

His hands were clutched into fists and he glared at the black quill with such ferocity that he was expecting it to start burning any second now. But as that seemed to be working _fantastically_, he resorted to other means of handing the situation. He took the damned feather – really, what was quill other than a _feather_? – twirled it between his fingers and seemingly coming to a decision, nodded. It only took a quick move and little strength to completely break the structure of the thing.

Umbridge's mouth hung half-open when she saw what happened.

"Whoops. Told you I wasn't good with this stuff," Ichigo deadpanned.

Her lips were moving up and down, but no words were coming out. Apparently, she hadn't counted on the possibility he would've simple done something as mundane as breaking a magical artifact, or whatever the thing was.

Ichigo couldn't say he was satisfied, though. He flung the bag over his shoulder, got away from the table, then several steps away from the door, he hesitated.

It couldn't end here. He couldn't just walk out and ignore the whole thing, maybe make a scary threat or something. It went against anything he had ever stood up for. On the other hand, he couldn't exactly beat that woman down to a pulp, either, if only because he had a feeling that'd only make the matters worse. And she was just so freakin' _old. _And probably powerless.

"D-do you have a-any idea how d-difficult is to get one of those?" Umbridge stammered, still in what seemed to be shock.

"Err – not really," Ichigo replied casually. "I guess that means there isn't any other one of those in this room."

The look on her face was more than enough to consent for that.

"Good," he said in low voice. "I'm just going to say it this once. Don't do that again. I could care less about the stupid rules. If I ever hear you did that again…" he didn't finish, mostly because he had no idea what he'd do. He only knew it wouldn't be pretty.

She seemed to be in too much shock to respond coherently.

"Guess I'm out of here, then," he added. On a second thought, he made a couple of steps back, took the pieces of the quill and then walked out of her office rather casually.

He was only mildly surprised to see Neville standing at the end of the corridor, as if he'd been waiting for Ichigo to come out. He didn't really point it out. He just walked past Neville and stopped when he emerged at the staircase. Neville was quick to follow.

"Say, you tired or something?" Ichigo asked in low, a bit strangled voice, one leg on the stair.

He noticed the other Gryffindor shaking his head.

Ichigo's fists clenched as he looked at Neville. _This is so going to come around and bite me on the ass._

"Good. Follow me," he muttered instead.

And then he went in completely opposite direction of the staircase that led towards the Gryffindor Tower. Neville bolted after him.

"What? Wait! Ichigo, wait! Where are you going?" he asked as he tried to catch up with the other teenager.

"Do you want to wake up the whole castle? Just shut up and hurry."

And without any other complaint, Neville did.

* * *

Harry spent most of the breakfast on Tuesday sending contemplative looks at Ichigo and Neville, who looked like they hadn't slept for at least twenty-four hours. It left him thinking that whatever Umbridge had them doing had been relatively horrible. He couldn't really go ahead and ask, though. Neville looked like he was barely keeping awake and the only thing that gave away Ichigo's exhaustion was actually the fact that he was much grumpier than normal – a thing that Parvati learned the hard way when she tried talking him into helping her with homework.

By the end of Charms – which Harry spent talking to Ron and Hermione about Umbridge reading his mail, failing utterly in performing the Silencing spell, being given additional practice for homework _and _with one eye watching Ichigo and Neville – Neville went from half-asleep to dead-asleep, only to be woken up rather violently by Ichigo who carelessly hit the other boy on the head.

Neville's only response was a grumpy groan, but Harry noticed that he now acted much warier around Ichigo than before. He wasn't sure whether it was about detention or something else, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't mind finding out.

Harry was immensely grateful to Hermione when she brought up the subject later, during lunch.

"You two looked exhausted," she told them. "What was Umbridge having you do?"

Neville's mouth was full at that precise moment so he didn't bother answering. Ichigo, though, raised his head with an exceptional 'leave me alone' glare. He answered, nonetheless.

"You want long story or short?"

Hermione was momentarily confused. "Well—um, long, I suppose… if you wouldn't mind sharing."

"I was her errand boy," Ichigo muttered darkly.

"And that's the long story?" Ron asked, bewildered. "Which one is short, then?"

Ichigo glared at him, before speaking, purposely stretching the word. "Bull-shit."

Ron looked much like he couldn't decide whether to make an incredulous grimace or just start laughing. Hermione looked disapproving. Harry, though, found that single word to be the best description of Defense Against the Dark Arts this year in general, and not just the professor.

"Ichigo, swearing is—" Hermione tried, only to be cut off by Ichigo almost the moment she started speaking.

"Spare me the lecture," he told her, almost sounding exasperated. When he continued, however, his voice was low, as if he was talking to himself, rather than the rest of them. "Dammit, I'm _done._ 'Don't cause trouble'… 'Don't draw attention to yourself'… 'At least for once respect the rules, just a little while'… Bullshit. All of it. Bull-fucking-shit. Why the _hell_ do I have to be here? I got enough Reiryoku back to be on par with Hinamori… well, as long as she isn't resorting to Kido, anyway. And I'm getting better at evading it. Wasn't that the _only_ damn reason we stayed in the first place?"

The four Gryffindors could only stare as Ichigo Kurosaki gave up on finishing his meal, shoved the plate away and left the Gryffindor table, looking much as if his whole day had been hell.

"Ichigo!" Hermione called after him.

"Hey, Ichigo? Where are you going?" Neville shouted.

"To hell, where do you think I'm going?" he snapped. He stopped walking, though, adding in much lower voice. "I'm going to bed and I _don't_ give a damn." He almost looked a bit guilty for shouting at them.

Nobody bothered stopping him after that.

Hermione turned to Neville.

"Did… did something happen… last night?" she asked, somewhat cautiously, perhaps afraid Neville would follow the lead.

For his part, Neville just looked down at his meal, whispering, "Sort of."

"What? Did Umbridge do something to put him in such a foul mood?" Harry asked.

Again, Neville didn't seem to be looking comfortable. "I'm not sure… she let me go earlier and… well, when Ichigo got out of her office he was already in a really bad mood. Doesn't help that he's been sleeping for less than four hours per day for the past week, if I caught that right…"

"Less than-? Does this have anything to do with that R-something he'd mentioned?" Harry asked.

"Re-roku," Hermione corrected.

"Yes, that," Harry mumbled. "I think it was Rei-how it started, though."

Neville's response was an honest shrug. "Dunno. I never even heard him mention that before."

Hermione frowned. It took her several tries before she managed to catch on the way Ichigo had said the word. "I'm really curious about this. If I'm right, the spelling is actually r-e-i-r-y-o-k-u… I'll look it up. And what was that other term he mentioned?"

"Kido," Ron supplied. "I heard McGonagall mention that to Sprout sometime ago… some self-defense art or something. We could ask Momo about it. She's the one doing it."

"Yes, we could," Hermione mused, frowning while she made a small note of it. "I just wish I knew how to spell it. Japanese have a really odd accent. You can't really hear it with Ichigo, for some reason or other, but with Momo… it's distinctive, really."

"It doesn't sound that bad," Ron said. "Just… the names are weird."

"We've already established that, all right," Neville said under his breath.

Ichigo did not show up anywhere at school throughout the rest of the day. When Ron and Harry went to the dorms to change in their Quidditch robes, they saw him sleeping. Harry's initial thought was that he was dead, as he did not at all react to all the noise they made, but if one took a good look, they'd be able to tell he was still breathing.

And that was when Harry noticed an oddity.

"Say, Ron, you didn't see Ichigo's cat lurking around lately, did you?" he asked.

"Eh? No. The last I've seen it… No idea. Before Hogsmeade?"

"Same.

"Think it got lost?"

"Wouldn't Ichigo be throwing a fit about it if that were the case?"

"Well, it could've gone to the Forbidden Forest," Ron said as he finally put on his robes. "Not that hard to get lost in there."

Harry thought it was a likely possibility, but… "Well, maybe. But I'm sure Ichigo wouldn't be so careless. Neville even says he caught him talking to it a few times before. I don't know. I just don't think Ichigo would forget about his familiar, that's all."

"Well, it certainly didn't grow wings and fly to Spain," Ron uttered under his breath. "Ready, yet? Urgh, I can't believe Angelina wants to hold a practice in this foul weather."

"At least it isn't an actual game," Harry said despondently as he looked at the heavy rain outside. "Come on, we don't want to be late."

The practice itself was a disaster, much because of the weather. Things didn't improve even later on, because Harry's scar hurt immensely for a second, he concluded he could read Voldemort's moods and Ron pestered him about not telling any of it to Dumbledore.

Hermione had appeared to had gone to bed before they arrived to the common room and Ichigo didn't seem to have moved at all from the moment since they left in the first place. Harry and Ron stuck to doing homework, until Ron gave up and said he was going to bed.

Midnight came and went while Harry was reading and rereading a passage about the uses of scurvy-grass, lovage and sneezewort and not taking in a word of it. His thoughts had drifted away soon enough, back to Hermione's words about Sirius being reckless, back to the Daily Prophet portraying him to be a an absolute nut-job and what they'd think if they learned he could suddenly tell _Voldemort's_ moods… never mind denying his return in the first place.

Seriously, why did he know what Voldemort was feeling? What was this weird connection between them, which Dumbledore had never been able to explain satisfactorily?

And then he was walking along a windowless corridor, one that he had seen before, but could not for the life of him remember where. He was close to the door, _so_ very close… his fingers were less than an inch away—

"Harry Potter sir!"

And that was when Dobby appeared, effectively waking him up. He brought Hedwig back, fully healed, and later on even told him about a possible place to use as a meeting place for the defense group.

The very next day Harry made sure that the place was usable, talked to Hermione and Ron, let most of the others know about it. He also asked Hermione about that Japanese term Ichigo had mentioned, but Hermione just shook her head and said she hadn't had the time to look it up yet.

By lunch, every person that had signed up had been informed of the meeting taking place. Harry and his friends had set out earlier, just to make sure the whole thing was confirmed once more and the room ready to accept thirty people for additional defense lessons.

Calling him impressed upon realizing the room was so much more than what he initially had expected it to be would be the understatement of the month.

The rest of the group was just as impressed.

"Well," Harry said, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've-er-obviously found it OK."

"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement. Harry felt something in him stir, in a very good way.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark detectors," Harry explained, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled…"

He gazed for a moment into the cracked Foe-Glass; shadowy figures were moving around inside it, though none was recognizable. He turned his back on it.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and—er—" He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.

"Harry's the leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.

Harry's stomach did a moderately-strong back-flip.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," Hermione said, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So-everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly. Hell, Harry could even see Ichigo's hand up in the air, somewhat lazily, but there.

"Er-right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning, though that was more because of Cho than anything else, really. "And—what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina asked hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the DA's good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

"But wouldn't that be too obvious if discovered?" Momo asked, effectively silencing the rest. She looked at Hermione nervously. "It's not that I think that any of us would be careless, but professors are still humans. Human factor in any situation should be at least considered."

Several people nodded thoughtfully. Harry, personally more liked the idea of Dumbledore's Army, but Momo had a point. Although he didn't rightly care all that much, he knew that if they were actually discovered, the person to suffer the most would be Dumbledore. Umbridge might even use it as a chance to actually take over the school. That was not, in anyway, a good thing.

On the other hand, they weren't really doing all this for Dumbledore, either.

Hermione didn't seem all that pleased, judging by her thoughtful frown alone.

"Well, I suppose you're right. All in favor of the DA?" she said bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count, but still somewhat unhappy. "That's a majority—motion passed!"

She pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters, rather reluctantly:

THE DEFENSE ASSOCIATION

"Right," Harry said when she had sat down again, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful—"

"Oh, please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?'"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry informed him, not for the first time.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"OK," said Harry, his mouth slightly drier than usual with all these eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Giving out instructions felt… odd. But it was an odder feeling when he actually saw them followed. Ichigo paired with Neville, Fred with George, Parvati with Lavender, Momo with Susan, Hannah with Ernie and so on and so forth. Much to Harry's surprise, Katie Bell was the only one left partner-less so Harry volunteered to work with her.

As the shouts echoed through the room, Harry realized he'd soon have to leave Katie on her own. The spellwork was generally a catastrophe for the most, but Ichigo and Neville seemed to be having the most problems with it, Momo not too far behind, but Susan apparently took it upon herself to teach her the right way.

Which left Harry to help Neville and Ichigo and only Neville could actually perform the spell. Much to Neville's shock and Ichigo's frustration, he'd so far managed to disarm Ichigo for about five times, before Harry tried to explain the transfer what he was doing wrong.

"And last, it's _Expelliarmus_, not Expelliramus, you get it?" he said, rubbing his templates.

"Fine, fine," Ichigo mumbled. "And I think I figured that wand motion, too."

"Well, good, I suppose," Harry said. "But really, you just went to a school across the world without even learning basic spells used here? I thought there had to be a crash course, or _something_, like when transferring from muggle schools."

"Well, I read the simplified notes on the first four years," Ichigo admitted grumpily. "The only thing I remember is the 'swish and flick' thing, Accio and some other stuff. I never really _learned _any of it… nobody said we had to. And it's not like I had the _time_ to do it."

Harry decided not to bring up that point again. "Come on, try it on me now, if you think you can get it right."

Ichigo nodded, awkwardly pointing his wand at Harry.

The spell was… Harry wasn't sure. There was enough power in it to knock him backwards, almost like a stunner, expect he was still conscious, but it wasn't even nearly enough to get the wand out of his hand.

"Urgh…" he muttered when he scrambled up to his feet with Ichigo's and Neville's help. "Err… less power more focus?" he mumbled.

Ichigo's frown deepened. "Damn."

"Come on. Try on Neville now. I have to go, see how the others are handling it," Harry said. "And just in case—do keep those cushions close."

A little over an hour later, they agreed about the next practice being next week at the same time. Harry pulled out the Marauder's Map and checked it carefully for signs of teachers on the seventh floor. He let them all leave in threes and fours, watching their tiny dots anxiously to see that they returned safely to their dormitories: the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor that also led to the kitchens; the Ravenclaws to a tower on the west side of the castle, and the Gryffindors along the corridor to the Fat Lady's portrait.

"That was really, really good, Harry," Hermione said when finally it was just her, Harry and Ron who were left.

"Yeah, it was!" said Ron enthusiastically, as they slipped out of the door and watched it melt back into stone behind them. "Did you see me disarm Hermione, Harry?"

"Only once," said Hermione, stung. "I got you loads more than you got me—"

"I did not only get you once, I got you at least three times—"

"Well, if you're counting the one where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of my hand—"

They argued all the way back to the common room, but Harry was not listening to them. He had one eye on the Marauder's Map, but he was also thinking of Cho and a bright smile she'd sent him a couple of times. And of course, that unstoppable feeling of utter excitement over finally spiting the Ministry and, even more so, Umbridge… He failed to fall asleep that night for a long, long time.

* * *

Over the course of the next two weeks, not much really changed. The weather continued being as horrible as during that Quidditch practice, the DA meetings continued rather unpredictably, what with coordinating three Quidditch teams practices, the upcoming season _and_ schoolwork which was threatening to suffocate them, but mostly the fifth and the seventh years.

On Harry's front, things were looking up. Instead of wasting time in Umbridge's class on reading the boring book, he recalled the utter moments of amazing when Neville actually disarmed him when Harry was prepared for him (hanging out with Ichigo was doing _wonders_ for his confidence), when Ichigo finally managed to utilize whatever he had trouble with when doing magic and performed a brilliant disarming spell, throwing Neville across half the room _without_ knocking the other boy out, then the moment Padma Patil performed a Reducto Curse that reduced a whole table with Sneakoscopes to dust.

It was those moments that helped him get through the abhorrently demanding classes in his course and even managed to help him get Voldemort's moods off his mind. It was knowing that he _could_ do it what kept him from even thinking of giving up and even when just watching from the side, to see how they were all coming along, he felt as if he was doing everything in his power.

On Ichigo's front, things were not that bright. Aside from the initial progress he'd made shortly before going to Hogsmeade, his training with Hinamori wasn't providing him with anything solid. Over the course of time, she finally started taking him seriously, when she realized he got fast enough to narrowly avoid Kido without hiding behind desks and chairs (they stopped using barrier-enhanced classrooms the moment they learned of the Room of Requirement), but that didn't mean he was progressing and not even Hinamori could figure out why.

She pressed harder, but he still couldn't get her to even consider wielding her Zanpakuto when confronting him, let alone actually drawing it. That little training with the DA, according to Hinamori, was restoring his Reiatsu, albeit slowly. It didn't help his cause that she couldn't yet confirm if Dumbledore's threats were solid or not, mostly because those who knew the 'truth' about them had effectively had their memories erased when Yoruichi came by with a new set of false memories and Kira had, according to Hinamori, handled it.

Ichigo had to bite back the disappointment when Yoruichi said she wasn't going to stick around, because there were urgent, pressing matters in Karakura she had to deal with. It took a lot of shouting to get it out of her that some Ginjo guy had made a move and that they needed to keep an eye on him and that it had nothing to do with his friends or family.

Ichigo wasn't really reassured, as anything Seireitei or Urahara related was automatically related to his friends and family too, but Yoruichi didn't look worried so he _hoped_ she was right.

But then he got sort of sidetracked when she mentioned that Rukia was at Hogwarts from time to time, just to make sure nothing unexpected happened. Much to his shock, Hinamori seemed to have known about from the beginning and somehow, Ichigo couldn't really find it in himself to be all that surprised. It did explain why he could feel a familiar presence somewhere around even despite the magic that could sometimes confuse even Hinamori's senses.

Needless to say, Yoruichi used his moment of utter befuddlement to wave and disappear, with confirmation from Hinamori that she really isn't going to be coming back.

On the bright side, Hinamori assured him they were going back to Japan during winter holiday. And honestly, that was the only bright side he could think of.

But back to Harry, now.

The Gryffindor's star Seeker really had a good feeling about the upcoming match of the season. Ron had improved a lot over time and Harry was pretty sure that it had something to do with his newfound determination… and the fact that Ron didn't seem to be hesitating about talking to Momo. Apparently, he learned something from that fiasco with Fleur the last year, at least when talking to girls. And Momo's friendly and vibrant personality probably had a lot to do with it.

But as Harry learned, it did not mean that Ron wouldn't be utterly discouraged while playing with the Slytherins.

Gryffindor won the game, at Harry's expense. The bludger he'd taken was not at all a pleasant experience.

But his fist, together with the snitch, sinking in Malfoy's stomach… Ichigo would've been proud.

It still resulted in him, Fred _and_ George being banned from Quidditch permanently, as long as Umbridge was concerned.

"Well, I was thinking of placing you in detention, but as I learned, those things no longer intimidate students. By the order of the High Inquisitor, you are banned from playing Quidditch ever again," was how she'd said it.

And of course, it was no secret that she was absolutely pissed off because Ichigo and Neville did not appear on any single of her scheduled detentions after that Monday, thus now she was making Gryffindor suffer the absolute worst way she could think of.

"I'm sorry," was the first thing Harry and Hermione had heard after they finally succeeded in finding Ron – who'd disappeared right after the game – at the Fat Lady's portrait.

"What for?" Harry asked.

"For thinking I can play Quidditch," said Ron. "I'm going to resign first thing tomorrow."

"If you resign," Harry told him testily, "there'll only be three players left on the team." And when Ron looked puzzled, he said, "I've been given a lifetime ban. So've Fred and George."

"What?" Ron yelped.

Hermione told him the full story; Harry could not bear to live through it again. When she had finished, Ron looked more anguished than ever.

"This is all my fault—"

"You didn't make me punch Malfoy," Harry pointed out angrily.

"—if I wasn't so terrible at Quidditch—"

"—it's got nothing to do with that."

"—it was that song that wound me up—"

"—it would've wound anyone up."

Hermione got up and walked to the window, away from the argument, watching the snow swirling down against the pane.

"Look, drop it, will you!" Harry burst out. "It's bad enough, without you blaming yourself for everything!"

Ron said nothing but sat gazing miserably at the damp hem of his robes. After a while he said in a dull voice, "This is the worst I've ever felt in my life."

"Join the club," Harry said bitterly.

"Well," said Hermione, her voice trembling slightly. "I can think of one thing that might cheer you both up."

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Yeah," Hermione said, turning away from the pitch-black, snow-flecked window, a broad smile spreading across her face. "Hagrid's back."

Ron and Harry immediately bolted to the window, only to confirm that yes, Hermione was right, and yes, the lights in Hagrid's hut were on. However, their looks were drawn away when, on the other side, right by the lake, there was a burst of light, about ten feet above their current height. The light was poisonously violet and lasted only for a second before it faded into the night.

However, none of the three Gryffindors failed to spot somebody standing _on air_ and another form falling down, into the deep snow, only several feet away from the lake. They just stared for a couple of seconds.

"That—I'm not the only one who saw that… right?" Ron asked uncertainly.

Hermione slowly shook her head, indicating that no, he wasn't the only one who just saw a body fall through air from height of an eight-story building, perhaps even higher, seeing as Hogwarts ceilings were over twelve feet away from the floors.

"We-we have to get down there," Harry said and started moving, but Hermione grabbed him by the elbow.

"Harry, no! It's dangerous—we don't even know what happened!"

"Well I can't just ignore the fact that somebody's perhaps dying down there!" Harry shouted.

He saw Ron leaning towards Hermione, muttering, "Maybe you were right about his saving-people-thing," but he chose to ignore it in favor of making his point.

Inevitably, Hermione agreed. Within the next following minutes, Harry grabbed the Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map, storming down the stairs with his best friends at his side. They should have known they wouldn't be the only ones.

* * *

Another slash was all it took for the guard to fall and those after her were commanded to stop by _him._ Not anybody else, but _him._

She didn't wait to see what he would decide; she couldn't. This was her only chance – she had yet to figure out how to take it – and she was not about to miss it. It was either that or… she refused to think of the other possible outcome.

With speed that was bound to exhaust her sooner rather than later, she slipped through the Precipice world, hoping, _praying_ that nobody was following her. It didn't stop her from casting several nasty spells in case somebody was trying to catch her, but knowing _him_, she was probably on her own from the moment she walked through the gate.

Somehow, she didn't feel very reassured.

The currents of the Precipice world did not get a chance to catch her before she emerged out of there, in the world of the living.

As the gate shut behind her, she stood, taking in her surroundings. She was standing in air, atop a lake and it was night. She didn't even try to tell what hour. The snowflakes landed on her hair, uniform and nose as she felt her insides squirm in anticipation.

_I made it. I'm at Hogwarts… I made it!_

She saw the warm glow of the castle a couple of miles away and, focusing hard, made another couple of what a Shinigami would call a Flash Step, in order to get there faster. Only through hard focus she could tell that there were two Shinigami at Hogwarts, which made it more than enough. Even more so when she realized her arrival had effectively drawn out one of them.

However, she couldn't risk it, and by performing another spell, she concealed her presence and form from the Shinigami girl in a typical Japanese uniform, with bob-styled short hair and a badge at the forearm at the last possible second before she was spotted.

The Shinigami girl was looking around, apparently looking for the source of the Spirit Energy which she'd felt from her, but if _she_ was good at anything, it was covering up whatever she wanted to do in a most bizarre way possible.

A slight, mirthless chuckle escaped her lips as she watched the Shinigami girl turn her back on her. It died soon enough.

_This is it… There're only two things I can do… but… which one should I?_

Her hands shook as she gripped her Soul Blade tighter.

_To be or not to be… fuck. Since when have I started quoting-? Oh, I'm going crazy. I hate you, you idiot. I hate you for doing this to me… and I'm so going to kill you after all this is through._

With that final thought, she made her decision and leapt out, making her existence known to the Shinigami girl. The girl was fast, though. The moment she'd leapt out, the girl had already managed to get her sword out and block the initial slash.

_Seriously, what do Japanese love about swords to much?_

One slash, another…

And another.

_She is strong, stronger than me in the long run… but I don't have the time for the long run. Good thing she at least can't see my face._

She pulled quite a bit away, making the girl pause.

"Who are you?" the Shinigami girl asked, in severely accented English.

She gripped her Soul Blade tighter. "I'm truly sorry about this," she said quietly, but she was more than certain that the Shinigami girl heard her. "Slice the skies, Severing Star… Violaceous Carving!" Her words had started out as a whisper, only to end as a scream.

The Shinigami girl stood no chance.

The violet beam caught her head on and went sideways through the girl's right biceps, diagonally over her stomach, even catching her left wrist, which was, in the worst case, almost completely cut off and in the best, it was only a deep gash. Only a tiny red line could be seen pouring from the girl's mouth before her consciousness faded and she started losing focus.

And as she breathed raggedly, watching the Shinigami girl fall deep down into the snow, Ariana Ray realized that she had never felt worse in her life.

* * *

And... cut.

If I say that yes, this was planned, you aren't going to murder me. Right? _Right?_

But, seriously now. The next chapter is sort of the breaking point so... If you don't like where it's going, then quit reading. Much to the popular concept, Voldemort can't possibly imagine being threat for the Shinigami... Harry, yes, but Shinigami? Don't make me laugh. So what I'm doing is balancing the power levels. Well, sort of.

Now, I really don't know how many people know what happens in OotP from the first page to the last, but I really can't go revising everything. The important plot points in OotP are important to the climax of OotP, but not here. At the same time, I can't completely ignore them, either, so I'm just briefly mentioning them. Hopefully nobody hates me.

As for the next update... err... in a week? Maybe more, if things continue on this way. I have some of the next chapter worked out, but no time to actually get to work on it. Sorry. It won't take too long. Really.


	13. Chapter 12: Beginning of the storm

Oh. Wow. Today's exactly two months since I've published this story. For now we've got twelve chapters and a prologue, a little less than 100k words for the story, nearlly 100 reviews and OMG over 11300 hits? Umm... am I dreaming? Please tell me I'm not! You're awesome, everyone! Anyways, this chapter was finished back on Saturday, actually. Relish the fact that I didn't put it up right away, otherwise you'd be reading it with a WTF face.

Hopefully, you aren't going to do that now. So, on to the chapter.

P.S.: One-hundredth reviewer gets to ask _any_ question about RiF which I'll answer to the best my ability. Review?

EDIT 24-04-2013: Heh, thanks, Justin. Inconsisctencies in the final parts of the chapter have been fixed. Damn. I should really think of stalking manga sites before I post anything. 535 came out earlier than usually. Anyway, still awesome.

* * *

Chapter 12: The beginning of the storm

"Oi, Hinamori… are you even listening to me?"

"Mmmmhmm…"

Ichigo scowled at the Shinigami Vice-Captain who didn't seem to be paying any attention to him.

"Hinamori!" he yelled, slamming the table hard.

"This is library, Mr. Kurosaki, not a place where you can yell your throat raw!" the librarian scolded.

Ichigo ignored her. Thankfully, Hinamori stopped trying to mess with her hair, instead turning to look at him.

"Yes, Kurosaki-san?"

"I just asked you about the damn 'Mandrakes' thing we were supposed to write something about and should've learned it in second year! You're the one who's got some sense of Herbology here!"

She sighed, going back to styling her hair into a pony-tail even despite the fact she should have been working on History of Magic essay with Susan. "I'm not sure. Isn't there literature on that somewhere in the library?"

"You could also try the Herbology book for second years," Susan added. "It wouldn't be hard to bully one of them into giving you one."

"What the—what do you take me for? I'm not a bully!"

"Well, I suppose you could still try looking around," Hinamori responded.

"And what about you? Aren't you two going to work on that essay?" Ichigo asked with his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, we finished that already," Susan told him, grinning. "It's just you who's left."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and growled. "Fine, then. I'll finish it tomorrow."

Slamming his book closed, he left the desk.

"Hmm… he doesn't seem to be in a good mood," Hinamori mentioned.

"Oh, let him be. Didn't you hear? The Gryffindor team lost their Seeker and the Beaters after winning a game spectacularly and unexpectedly. Naturally, they're upset."

Ichigo refrained from rolling his eyes again, finding the whole thing to be ridiculously stupid in his opinion. He'd witnessed a lot different reactions about the life ban that Potter and the Weasley twins got, but he really didn't care. So yeah, Quidditch was interesting and all, and maybe, if he had nothing better to do, he'd try out, just for the heck of it, but he already had loads of things to do and the list seemed to be getting longer with every passing hour.

He was at the fifth floor (after half an hour of just looming around aimlessly) when he came across Neville. A sweaty, red in face and completely out of breath Neville. Ichigo took one look and blinked. Several times.

"Huh?"

It was only at that point that the other Gryffindor noticed him.

"Oh, hi, Ichigo," he managed to gasp out.

"Err… is there any specific reason you look like you've been running up the stairs for half an hour?"

Neville shrugged sheepishly. "Maybe because that's exactly what I've been doing?"

"Huh? You've been running up the stairs for half an hour?"

"More like five minutes, but… just… trying to get in shape."

Ichigo was looking at him stoically, before shrugging. "Good for you. It's probably hypocritical of me to say this, but… take it easy. "

Neville didn't respond immediately. When he did, it was completely unrelated.

"What do you have in plan for Christmas holidays?"

"Home, finally," Ichigo said immediately.

"Hm… so you really don't like it here?"

"It's not that I don't like it, just…" he trailed off.

"Your old school is much better?" Neville supplied.

"No—no, it's… it's got nothing to do with school."

"So… you miss your family? Your friends?"

Ichigo nearly groaned at how _cheesy_ that sounded. But… he thought back to Yuzu's tearful face before he said his goodbyes… thought back to Karin's punch… back to the way Goat chin looked after freezing the currents of Dangai for almost three months… back to the expressions on his friends' faces when he opened his eyes after a month… back to watching Rukia disappear before his eyes…

"No. Of course not," he said. "I just have a really bad feeling about something…"

He wasn't sure where that came from, but he knew it was true. He'd almost go as far as to say that he _knew_ that something was wrong with either his friends or family.

And that was exactly when he felt Rukia's Reiatsu vanish.

Ichigo's body stiffened, his eyes widening.

It was not the first time Rukia just went off his radar. That happened frequently enough because he really sucked at sensing people and the magic itself was rather disruptive, so he was never really paying much attention, but this… she didn't _leave_ Hogwarts. He couldn't tell how he knew, but he knew he was right. Something happened.

Something _bad_ happened.

So he really didn't give it any thought before bolting downstairs, completely ignoring Neville's call. He ran because something happened to Rukia. He ran because there was no point in any of this if _somebody_ – no, not somebody, this was _Rukia_ – got hurt. There wasn't any point if any of his friends just…

He cut of that thought as he took another wrong turn.

He needed to hurry, dammit. He needed to hurry.

* * *

Neville wasn't really sure what happened. All he knew was that he was talking to Ichigo, but then something in Ichigo's face changed and he simply stormed down the stairs without any single word. Failing to think of any better course of action, Neville ran after him, but he was barely keeping up. Whatever was driving his friend had to be important, but Neville couldn't fall behind now. He'd improved over the past couple of weeks and even if running up the stairs for a really short time exhausted him, running down them was much easier than one would think.

_Especially_ if one wasn'tthinking what he was doing.

"Ichigo!"

Neville was clueless on where Ichigo was going – until he saw Ichigo passing through the smaller hallways (notably the one leading to the yard) and realized Ichigo was actually trying to get outside.

_Guess it's a bit better I still know the paths better than him…_ Neville thought absently as he simply used the most obvious and easiest way out.

Only once he was out did he catch up with Ichigo – who was still running through the snow as if it wasn't even there – and almost lost him again.

Neville almost wanted to run back inside, he was freezing, his feet were cold from the snow and he wasn't exactly wearing winter clothes, either. But he couldn't. Not now.

Not when he saw Ichigo finally slow down, nearly at the edge of the lake, up to the point of suddenly stopping. Neville stopped as well, a couple of feet behind, immediately leaning on his knees and panting.

"Ichigo, what—are—you…?" the words died on his lips when he looked up.

Several feet in front of Ichigo, a sword was stabbed into the snow, the ground. Neville could see it well because it reflected the warm light coming from the castle – and the castle itself was lighting up everything around and with the snow covering the ground and the still unfrozen lake not too far, it was as if there were dim street lights lit everywhere.

But no, the sword wasn't what surprised Neville the most. It was only initially that it stopped him in his tracks.

What lay a couple of feet away from the sword was a terrifying sight.

There were crimson drops in white snow everywhere around a girl laying there, in about a foot deep snow, all covered in blood. Neville couldn't even tell where the real wound was from all the blood. His eyes were wide, unblinking and he was in too much of a shock to breathe. He no longer even felt the cold. His blood had chilled at the sight.

Only when Ichigo bent down to his knees, a silent word escaping him did he snap out of it.

"Rukia…"

For a moment, an impossible thing occurred to Neville. _Does Ichigo… does Ichigo know her?_

But surely, that couldn't be—

He was proven wrong when he made a couple of tiny steps towards Ichigo and the girl. Tiny steps sure, but he got much closer. The look on Ichigo's face was…

His eyes weren't all that wide open as Neville half-expected them to be. His mouth was half-open, perhaps as if he was just trying to say something, but there was no that trademark scowl on his face. That alone made the anguish in his eyes more pronounced than ever.

His hand was stretched out an inch away from the girl's – she had a deep gash on her left wrist – and it was visibly shaking.

"R-Rukia…" he repeated.

Neville heard several people approaching, but he didn't turn to look. He couldn't look away; not really.

"Neville, Ichigo, what are you—?" he recognized Harry's voice and somehow wasn't even surprised about Harry being there.

Ichigo, on the other hand, didn't seem to have heard it at all.

But even Harry couldn't seem to find anything to say and Neville soon saw that Ron and Hermione were with him as well. They seemed to be exchanging a set of looks and the next person to speak was Hermione.

"What—Do you, perhaps, know what happened?" her voice was tiny, quiet. As if she thought they knew exactly what happened, but Neville didn't have a clue.

Ichigo still seemed to be oblivious to the world and Neville considered shaking his shoulder, but when he moved to do that Ichigo decided to do move as well.

He was shaking, probably not from the cold alone (his trousers were drenched from kneeling in the snow), but somehow, he steadily managed to pick up the girl in his arms and lift her up from the snow almost as if she was light as feather.

Her eyes were closed and her skin was stark white, but she seemed to be alive nonetheless. The ice was slowly forming over her right arm and left wrist – where two deep gashes were – and Neville managed to catch a glimpse of it on her stomach as well. Ichigo, who had previously been wearing only a t-shirt with a light jacket over it didn't seem to care about the fact that both were now stained in the girl's blood and the melted snow and that the air around him was cold enough to freeze the edges of the lake.

Neville could no longer see his eyes. They were hidden behind his hair as his head was bowed low; he was looking at the girl.

"Kurosa—"

The rest of it was lost in Hermione's scream.

Neville turned around so quickly that he was subconsciously shocked that he didn't get a whiplash. There, behind Harry, Ron and Hermione stood Momo Hinamori, one hand at the sheath and the other on the hilt of a sword that was almost the same one as the other sword stabbed into the ground. Slowly, Momo released both. Only then did Neville realize she wore almost the same clothes as the girl in Ichigo's arms.

Whatever Momo said next, Neville didn't understand. It was Japanese and when Ichigo responded, he did so in the same language. However, his response was very quiet, very calm, very short and… completely unlike Ichigo.

He held the girl tighter.

Momo said something in Japanese again, but then followed through on English quickly. "We have to get her inside. Do you know any place…? Even in the school, it doesn't matter. We just have to get her inside quickly."

"H-Hagrid lives in that hut over there," Ron stammered, gesturing behind him. "H-he'd probably help."

Momo nodded and looked at Ichigo. "Kurosaki-san?"

"Aa… Sou da…" [That's right]

To call Hagrid flabbergasted when he had opened the door of his cabin to see four Gryffindors, two strangers and an almost dead girl would probably be the understatement of the year. Harry and Hermione had taken up to explaining him what happened (that little bit they knew). Ron and Neville had stood aside, feeling absolutely useless while Ichigo had put the girl on Hagrid's bed and Momo had muttered something about how she'd handle it. She had also taken along the other sword with them and not one person had been surprised to learn that it belonged to the mysterious girl.

In fact, the situation had been so much of a mess that nobody even thought on pointing out that Hagrid looked like he'd been beaten up by a horde of giants.

Ichigo, Neville noticed, never did pay attention to that. He was grateful to the giant man for letting them inside, but otherwise, he hadn't spoken a word. He didn't even notice those couple of times Hinamori had sent him really odd looks and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared.

The others gathered in the other side of the hut and just watched in utter silence how Momo's hands were glowing an odd shade of green and how that green appeared to have already healed the deep gash on the girl's wrist, leaving only a shallow cut behind.

"W-who… who do you think that is?" Ron asked in low voice, sometime later.

"I'm not sure," Hermione responded. "She's wearing the same clothes as Momo… and they both have those armbands…"

"Yeah, I noticed that, too. That's why I'm asking," Ron said.

"I don't know, Ron, I don't know. It… it sure looks like they know."

"Think we should tell—?" Ron's question was cut off when Momo's voice reached them.

"D-does anybody know what happened? I mean, how – how you knew about what happened to Kuchiki-san?"

_Now at least we have a name to add to the face,_ Neville thought shakily.

"We—there was this beam of light. Purple, I reckon. It lasted for a second and then we… then we just saw her fall," Harry told her.

Momo nodded in acknowledgement, but did not immediately speak.

"Do you… know…" and that was the first time anyone heard Ichigo speak from the moment they entered Hagrid's hut (which was over quarter of an hour ago). Neville first would have described Ichigo's voice as broken. He couldn't even finish the question, but Momo seemed to have realized what he was trying to ask anyway.

"I don't know yet," she replied. "I… I can only assume it had to do with the odd Reiatsu I felt prior to coming down, but that's already obvious enough."

"And… is she…?"

"She's stable, for now," Momo said. "I… You've given Urahara-san's notebook to me, right?"

"Yeah… You took it after that fiasco with the Headmaster. Just in case."

_The Headmaster? What? _Neville wanted to know.

Momo nodded. "Could you go get it, please? I'd go myself, but I can't leave Kuchiki-san now. She's stable, but on my own I can do nothing but make sure she lives for another couple of hours. I'm better at other types of Kido. It's in my dor—no, wait, you wouldn't be able to enter." She then said a word that, although the English native speakers had no idea what it meant, didn't have trouble recognizing as a curse.

Then she turned and looked straight at Hermione.

"Hermione-chan, could you do it instead, please? I'll tell you how to enter the common room and I'll think of a way to make sure nobody notices—"

"She could use Harry's cloak," Ron said before Hermione could even think of responding.

"What?"

"My cloak," Harry said. "Invisibility Cloak. Nobody would be able to see her with it."

"Oh… even better, I suppose," Momo said.

The four Gryffindors were rather surprised at the lack of any other reaction from her. No matter what the situation, weren't Invisibility Cloaks rare? Like, anybody would be surprised to hear Harry had it?

They were apparently proven wrong with Momo's lack of enthusiasm, but no one would ever question that in this situation.

Hermione hesitated before giving a final, really small nod.

"The notebook you're looking for is the thinnest you'll find in my trunk," Momo told her after letting her know how to enter the Hufflepuff common room. "It's dark green in color, but just to make sure, check if on the first page there is a text in Japanese and a text in English beneath. The English part is some instructions about Gringotts."

Hermione nodded, indicating she understood.

"Take the map, too," Harry told her, pushing the Marauder's Map in her hands. Hermione did, before taking Harry's cloak as well and leaving the hut. Silence ensued once again.

"So none of yeh have any idea what 'appened to 'er," Hagrid said after a couple of minutes.

The response he got was a shake of heads.

"Maybe yeh should take 'er to Madam Pomfrey instead. She heals everything."

"That's not a bad idea," Ron added. "Madam Pomfrey would fix her up in a day."

Ichigo didn't react. Momo shook her head no.

"Unfortunately, I don't think magic could help with this," she told them quietly, wiping the sweat from her brow with one hand. "I… right now I'm about the only person who can do this."

"At-at least take it easy," Neville said quietly. "You look… tired."

"I… can't, really… I just can't."

She didn't elaborate further. Hagrid offered to make some tea for everyone and Neville sat by the window, looking out for Hermione's return. He was almost sure it was Hermione walking towards the castle, until he remembered that she was under the cloak and he shouldn't be able to see her.

That's when he also realized the figure approaching was also much shorter and much fatter than Hermione could ever hope to become.

"Oh, _no._ I think we have a problem, everyone," he said, pointing through the window.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Umbridge is coming!"

"What?!" Harry asked, accidentally managing to knock down Neville's mug as he moved to look through the window as well.

"Who?" Hagrid asked.

"Umbridge, the professor the Ministry assigned. She's coming to talk to you!" Harry said.

"Or she's figured out we're here and is trying to catch us on act. We _are_ technically breaking the rules," Ron supplied.

"Well she'll be here any minute now," Neville added. "Any ideas where we can hide?"

"The hut's too small. She'll see us wherever we go," Harry said.

"The back door?"

"Yeah, she wouldn't see us if we went out that way."

"No."

They all froze when they heard Ichigo speak.

"We ain't going anywhere."

There was a knock on the door.

"Then what are we going to do?" Ron demanded in absolute panic. "If she finds us here…"

"I'll—"

"Gather here, I'll hide us," Momo said, even despite the fact Ichigo apparently had a plan. "Hagrid-san, let her in and make sure not to give any indication that we're inside. You won't be able to see us and neither will she, but still. And don't forget to take those teacups."

There was another knock on the door and everybody hastened to follow Momo's orders.

"The moment we disappear, let her in," she said, removing her one hand from the healing light. "Bakudō no Nijūroku: Kyokkō!"

Not one person on Momo's side of the barrier noticed any difference. However, Hagrid apparently had, because he was no longer looking at them, rather opening the door for Umbridge to enter.

"Wow. Wandless magic. Awesome," Ron breathed.

Hinamori didn't try to correct him on that matter, as she was too busy healing Rukia and hiding them from Umbridge's sight, but comparing magic to Kido did not sit well with her. It was also one of the reasons she didn't focus on listening to Umbridge speaking to Hagrid like the rest of them – sans Ichigo.

Harry couldn't stop an involuntary shudder as Umbridge's eyes went across them, but she didn't seem to be able to see them. He made a note to ask Momo how later.

"Err—I don' want ter be rude," Hagrid said, staring at her, "but who the ruddy hell are you?"

"My name is Dolores Umbridge."

"Dolores Umbridge?" Hagrid said, sounding thoroughly confused. "I thought you were one o' them Ministry—don' you work with Fudge?"

"I was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, yes," Umbridge confirmed, now pacing around the cabin, taking in every tiny detail within, from the haversack against the wall to the abandoned travelling cloak. "I am now the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher—"

"Tha's brave of yeh," Hagrid said, "there's not many'd take tha' job any more."

"—and Hogwarts High Inquisitor," Umbridge finished, giving no sign that she had listened, much less heard him.

"Wha's that?" Hagrid asked, frowning.

"Precisely what I was going to ask." Umbridge pointed at the broken shards of china on the floor that had been Neville's mug.

"Oh," Hagrid faltered, with a most unhelpful glance towards the corner where the group of them was hidden, "oh, tha' was… was Fang. He broke a mug. So I had ter use this one instead."

Hagrid pointed to the mug from which he had been drinking. Umbridge stood facing him now, taking in every detail of his appearance instead of the cabins.

"I heard voices," she said quietly.

Momo grit her teeth, but did nothing else.

"I was talkin' ter Fang," Hagrid said stoutly.

"And was he talking back to you?"

"Well… in a manner o' speakin. I sometimes say Fang's near enough human—"

"There are about four sets of footprints in the snow leading from the castle doors to your cabin," Umbridge said sleekly.

About all of them were thinking among the same lines: 'Oh hell, we forgot!'

_Calm down, we didn't come from the castle_, Momo thought, trying to calm herself. _There are footprints leading here, but not from the castle directly. We've been at the lake, first._

_Wait, didn't she just say four?_ Neville noticed. _There's five of us here. And also Hermione. She's gotta be bluffing, then._

"Well, I on'y jus' got back," Hagrid, waving an enormous hand at the haversack, a little bit nervously. "Maybe someone came ter call earlier an' I missed 'em."

"There are no footsteps leading away from your cabin door."

"And Hermione's?" Ron whispered to Harry's ear.

"She's bluffing," Harry whispered back, more to assure himself than for any other reason.

"Well, I… I don' know why that'd be…" said Hagrid, tugging nervously at his beard and again glancing towards the corner where the group of them was, as if asking for help.

Umbridge turned around and strode the length of the cabin, looking around carefully. She bent and peered under the bed, her face only an inch away from Ichigo's legs. She opened Hagrid's cupboards. She passed within two inches of where Harry, Ron and Neville stood; Harry actually pulled in his stomach as she walked by. After looking carefully inside the enormous cauldron Hagrid used for cooking, she wheeled round again and said, "What has happened to you? How did you sustain those injuries?"

"You know, how come we didn't ask that first?" Ron whispered.

"Good question… Hermione had asked, but…" but Hagrid didn't answer because he saw Ichigo and the Kuchiki girl and nobody remembered to ask again. However, Harry could tell that 'an accident' was surely not the truth.

"What sort of accident?"

Umbridge seemed to share his opinion.

"I—I tripped."

"Lamest excuse ever," Ron groaned quietly, palming his face. It resulted with Umbridge hearing some of it again and now she was looking towards them especially determinedly.

"You tripped," she repeated coolly, but was now slowly approaching the bed. Ichigo moved just in time to make sure Umbridge didn't step on his foot. She waved her hands through the air. Neville and Harry ducked down until they were practically sitting on the ground.

"Yeah, tha's right. Over… over a friends broomstick. Err— what yer doin'?"

"Where have you been?" asked Umbridge, completely ignoring his question.

"Where've I—?"

"Been, yes," she said. "Term started two months ago. Another teacher has had to cover your classes. None of your colleagues has been able to give me any information as to your whereabouts. You left no address. Where have you been?"

There was a pause in which Hagrid stared at her with his bruised eye. Harry could almost hear his brain working furiously

"I—I've been away for me health," he said finally.

"Okay, somebody's got to teach him how to be convincing. She's going to figure him out in minutes if he doesn't shut up," Ron muttered to Neville really quietly now.

"For your health," Umbridge repeated. Her eyes traveled over Hagrid's discolored and swollen face. "I see."

"Too late," Neville mumbled.

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "bit o'—o' fresh air, yeh know—"

"Yes, as gamekeeper fresh air must be so difficult to come by," said Umbridge sweetly. The small patch of Hagrid's face that was not black or purple flushed.

"Well—change o' scene, yeh know—"

"Mountain scenery?" Umbridge asked swiftly.

Ron clapped a hand over his mouth desperately to stop himself from groaning. Apparently, he figured out what Hagrid had been doing and even Harry realized it wouldn't be hard to guess.

"Mountains?" Hagrid repeated, clearly thinking fast. "Nope, South o' France fer me. Bit o' sun an'… an' sea."

"Really?" said Umbridge. "You don't have much of a tan."

"Yeah… well… sensitive skin," said Hagrid, attempting an ingratiating smile. Neville noticed that two of his teeth had been knocked out.

Umbridge looked at him coldly; his smile faltered. Then she hoisted her handbag a little higher into the crook of her arm and said, "I shall, of course, be informing the Minister of your late return."

"Righ'," said Hagrid, nodding.

"You ought to know, too, that as High Inquisitor it is my unfortunate but necessary duty to inspect my fellow teachers. So I daresay we shall meet again soon enough."

She turned sharply and marched back to the door.

"You're inspectin' us?" Hagrid repeated blankly, looking after her.

"Oh, yes," said Umbridge softly, looking back at him with her hand on the door handle. "The Ministry is determined to weed out unsatisfactory teachers, Hagrid. Goodnight."

And she left, slamming the door behind her.

"Blimey… inspectin' people, is she?" he managed to say. He didn't seem to expect any answers, however, and no one bothered. He approached the window, moving the curtain aside a little. "Yeh can get outa there now. She's goin' back ter the castle."

Momo twisted her outstretched hand a little and turned back to healing the Kuchiki girl.

Only seconds later, the door of the cabin opened and only once they'd been closed again, Hermione removed Harry's cloak and laid the map and a green notebook down on the table.

"I'm… so… sorry…" she gasped. "I passed by her at the entrance hall. I only saw it later on the map that she was heading here… had I known, I would've… I would've made sure she… didn't…"

"It's okay, Hermione," Momo said, completely dropping the usual honorific she used. "Did you… get it?"

"Ah, yes, is this it?" Hermione asked.

Momo nodded, allowing the magic she used for healing to die down. She took the notebook from Hermione and asked, "Has anyone got a quill and ink I could use?"

It took a couple of minutes for Hagrid to find those, but once he did, he provided Momo with them fast enough.

Momo spent about ten minutes looking at the notebook, occasionally writing something. Finally, after the ten minute mark hit, she shut the notebook and stood up.

It was the first time Ron, primarily, had noticed the change in her. He had seen her in that outfit already and while it had puzzled him back then, he hadn't been questioning it. But back then her hair had been down, the look on her face slightly panicked and she had been trashing him. Right now, her hair was up in a ponytail, her posture swift and the look in her eyes filled with something he couldn't quite decipher.

And then she bowed.

Her body was literally at the ninety degree angle and it appeared to be directed towards everyone who was not Ichigo Kurosaki.

"I… I am very grateful to you for this, all of you," she said before anyone could even think of saying anything. "I truly am… Without you, Kuchiki-san may have died and while not very close, she's still a friend of mine. Therefore, I am truly, truly sorry that I must do this."

She was fast. She was incredibly fast when she managed to scramble out her Kikanshinki, the regular one, and erase all of their memories of this night before she could regret it. Doing it felt just wrong, but she didn't have a choice. They saw too much. It affected all of them too much. If she could, she would have erased Kurosaki-san's memories as well, but that would be useless.

He would remember soon enough. Maybe not in a day, maybe not in a week… but he would remember. And she didn't even want to think of what would happen after.

But they would remember as well, she knew. They didn't have as much Reiryoku as Kurosaki-san, but they would remember eventually and there was as of yet absolutely nothing she could do about it.

Kurosaki-san didn't say anything on her actions, but judging by the look of it, he wished things could have happened differently.

Momo did, too, but there was no other way at the moment.

"Come on, take Kuchiki-san," she said softly in Japanese. "They'll be waking up soon. We should move her somewhere safer."

"Where?"

"The Room of Requirement? Or even the Hospital Wing? As long as we're not seen, anywhere is fine."

"Anyone can stumble on us if we go to each of those places? Any better solutions?"

Momo frowned. "I'm not sure. I'm still waiting for limiter release and I'm not strong enough to do anything before that, not even put up a barrier to keep wizards from finding us. Our only choice is a place we know nobody will enter."

"The Quidditch stadium?"

"No. Those with enough backbone may come late at night to practice, especially now when there are three open positions on a team."

"Well do you have any ideas? Because I've got none," Ichigo snapped.

"I… could take her to Seireitei," Momo whispered. "It would require opening an illegal Senkaimon and I'm supposed to stand by for further orders, but…"

"But…?"

"I… can't leave without knowing what happened. My orders are to find out who was powerful enough to take down a Vice-Captain in a single strike and wait for further orders regarding Kuchiki-san. If I'm right, a unit is going to be dispatched here immediately, but it'll take some time for them to arrive. We have to wait. There's nothing else we can do now."

Ichigo said nothing.

"Come on, let's go. We can't stay here."

He followed her out of the cabin with one last regretful look towards the sleeping wizards and the giant.

They were half-way to the castle when he finally spoke up.

"What I'm going to ask you… is going to be pretty selfish," he said. Momo refused to let him know she was listening, but he knew it either way.

"I've got some of my Reiryoku back… perhaps not even a scrap of what it had been back when I fought Aizen, but… it's enough, isn't it? It's got to be."

"Kurosaki-san…"

"I can't just… I can't just see my friends fall down and be powerless to do anything about it. I need power, Hinamori. Right now there's no single damn thing I could've done to prevent this. Maybe if I had been a bit faster, I would've found the one who'd done this to Rukia, but that… it's too late now. They're gone. And who knows who the next target may be. I have to do something."

"What you are suggesting…"

"It's wrong, I know," Ichigo mumbled. "It's gonna get you in lots of trouble and may not even work in the first place… but I can't just sit by."

"Kurosaki-san, I…" Momo turned to tell him she couldn't possibly do that. She had every intention of saying it, perhaps even yelling it in his face. But when she saw the look in his eyes, she faltered.

For a second, she was ready to stab Tobiume through his heart, ready to do the right thing for once in her life.

That second passed by quickly enough and her sense of duty returned with full force.

She closed her eyes, unable to look at him.

"I… I'm so sorry, Kurosaki-san… I can't do it…"

He didn't say anything at first, perhaps because he saw regret in her face. He was quiet, the look in his eyes determined, but when he spoke, he didn't say what Momo had been expecting him to say.

"Aa… I understand."

She turned away and continued walking back towards the castle. She wasn't sure why, but she could feel her hands shaking. She crossed them over her stomach as she walked, hoping to keep the shaking on bare minimum. A tear slid down her face. Why was this disturbing her so much? Why had she been expecting Kurosaki to snap at her for not complying with his request? Why… why was she feeling like she did the wrong thing again?

Momo got the note of limiter release a couple of minutes later. They sneaked into one of the classrooms where she continued healing Kuchiki-san and soon enough there was a confirmation that the backup team will be arriving soon. She tried to lock on the Reiatsu from Kuchiki-san's injuries, but the magic and her own barrier were making it nearly impossible.

Kurosaki never once left Kuchiki-san's side.

Even when the early signs of dawn appeared through the windows of the dusty classroom they were in. She would go far enough to say that he was literally sleeping with his eyes open, but the exhaustion evident in his face spoke otherwise. She never once told him to leave, either. She'd sneak a glance at him once or twice per hour during the time they spent there, just to make sure he didn't fall down. Each time she'd look away, she'd feel something eating her from the inside.

"_Remember, Hinamori-san. You are in charge of restoring Kurosaki-san's Reiryoku. It will be a slow process and preferably, it shouldn't be rushed._

"_As of now, there is only three methods we can use to help him return his Shinigami powers. The first method would involve a long wait for Ginjo Kugo to make his move and then it would require every Captain's and Vice-Captain's Reiatsu to restore Kurosaki's powers to the level at which they used to be. This method is a guaranteed success, but it takes over a year of wait and we do have a better option than that. The second method is something I can't consider, because Kurosaki-san lost his powers on his own and they were not bound like those of his father. Therefore, we are sticking to the third method, but before we can do anything about his Shinigami powers, he must possess Reiryoku of at least a fourth seat. Is that clear?"_

_Momo nodded._

"_Good. Well, that makes it clear, then. You can go join the rest of them. Kurosaki-san will be here in a couple of minutes and then you're off."_

_Momo moved to exit the room, but she looked back to the shopkeeper. "And what is the third method?" she asked._

"_Something really similar to the first one," Urahara replied with a grin. "Except a little bit different and much more effective."_

Momo ignored the memories and focused back on healing Kuchiki-san. She was almost finished. Another half an hour and… she saw the floor approaching dangerously close to her face. She did not register at all that it was her who actually fell down.

* * *

Ariana Ray sat at the Astronomy tower, in one of the more secluded corners of it, watching the slight changes in the dark sky as dawn approached. Her Soul Blade, which was, in fact, a spear, was resting next to her. Her face was calm, one could even say impassive, and her blue eyes did not in anyway show the inner turmoil she was going through.

To anyone looking from the outside, they would see a slim eighteen-year-old girl with long blonde hair falling down in soft waves around her face. They would, naturally, think she was a seventh year student from Hogwarts, perhaps a Ravenclaw because of the all-knowing look in her eyes, with worries of any ordinary teenager such as school, exams, unrequited love, lack of attention from her family or perhaps a girl who got into a quarrel with her best friend.

They couldn't be more wrong about that.

In hindsight, Ariana thought that may actually be funny; opinion of an ignorant mind, but she had more pressing matters to think of… Things which were much more important than anything else…

She had attacked a Shinigami.

While that in itself wouldn't really be all that much of an issue, the problem was, she had been shooting to kill. Probably a good thing that it hadn't worked out.

Everybody who knew Ariana also knew she was prone to being dangerous when under strong pressure. She hadn't been her General's second-in-command for nothing. But they also knew Ariana was loyal to Avalon; that she would never betray her home. However, they were also aware that when under pressure, she was unable to think rationally.

Ariana knew that too, but she denied the issue. It had never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it before and she never acted without a really good reason.

_Bullshit,_ she thought absently as he stroked her Blade. She had attacked that Shinigami girl because back then she had believed she had only two ways out. In fact, that had been true, but it was her who chose the wrong one. She should have just went and told the girl about what was going on, told her of the ploy that had unwrapped in Avalon and beg Seireitei for help, as it was initially planned, but she hadn't. She attacked to kill instead and now she needed to think of some other way to control the damage.

Seireitei may have put some faith in her before, but now… now she was an enemy. In their eyes, she was now probably as evil as Sosuke Aizen. Taking out their Vice-Captain while her own rank was equivalent of a Vice-Captain in power, of course they would be upset. Telling them she was just trying to help now would be lying to their faces.

_But what am I really trying to do?_

She didn't know.

She wanted to be the one to end the misery in Avalon, not some other, completely unrelated nation, but… _not at this price. I can't allow innocents to die for the sake of my grudge._

Really, her only solution now was to bring the situation in Avalon to light for Seireitei to see. Whether they would see her as an enemy or as an ally no longer mattered. She needed to get them to Avalon without any further delay.

The only problem was…

_How?_

* * *

"_Get away from her, kid!"_

"_Dear, are you—"_

"_Run, dammit!"_

Momo gasped, sitting up before she even fully opened her eyes, gripping her covers tightly.

_What… what was that just now?_

She still couldn't quite understand those final moments of her life as a human, much less remember them all.

She looked around herself, to see that she was lying on several desks brought together and that what she was gripping was actually a jacket and not a blanket. Through the dirty windows protruded light of the day and she saw Kurosaki sitting on a chair, his back against the wall and his legs stretched out on the other chair. Kuchiki-san was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, you're awake…"

Momo blinked at being addressed. "Mm… how… how long was I out?"

"An hour? Maybe two? I'm not sure, really."

Momo nodded. At least it wasn't too long.

"Eh… where is Kuchiki-san?"

"Renji, Toshiro, Kira and Byakuya were here about ten minutes ago. Byakuya and Kira took her back to Soul Society for recovery. According to Kira, you… did a really good job."

"I… see… and Toshiro-kun and Abarai-kun?"

"They didn't say, but I can feel they're still around. Said you should contact them after you wake up."

"Oh…"

"Breakfast?"

Momo wanted to say no, that she needed to talk to Toshiro-kun, but her stomach seemed to be working on other wavelengths. "Uh… I suppose I could."

She got off the tables, stretching a little. Lazily, Kurosaki got up as well.

"Ah, sorry," Momo said, straightening his jacket before returning it. Ichigo took it without a comment.

They were walking through the halls towards the Great Hall when Momo looked at him and slowed down. He didn't appear to have noticed right away, but once he did, he slowed down as well.

"Something up?"

"N-no… not really. I… thank you, Ichigo-kun."

He spared only a short, rather blank look for her, before shrugging and continuing to walk towards the Great Hall. Momo found herself speeding up after him. Briefly, she wondered when exactly had he become Ichigo-kun instead of Kurosaki-san.

It got out of her mind soon enough as she needed to pick up her Gigai before letting anyone else see her. Telling that to Ichigo-kun, she turned, rushing up to the Hufflepuff common room.

Behind her, Ichigo groaned. It'd probably do better to change clothes before anyone saw him, too.

* * *

Harry rubbed his temples, trying to get rid the headache that had been torturing him ever since he had woken up that Sunday morning. He was still a bit tired from their late night's excursion to Hagrid's place after that mentally exhausting Quidditch fiasco. Then things got weirder because he couldn't clearly remember what happened. He knew Umbridge went there and Hagrid told them about visiting giants and Neville was all about some game, but his head was a mess so he dismissed it in favor of finishing his homework with Ron while Hermione went down to help Hagrid plan out his future classes.

Unfortunately, somebody seemed to be having fun throwing snowballs at the window he was sitting nearby and each time a snowball would hit, Harry's head would throb harder.

"Oi!" Ron bellowed, finally losing patience and sticking his head out of the window, "I am a prefect and if one more snowball hits this window—OUCH!"

He withdrew his head sharply, his face covered in snow.

"It's Fred and George," he said bitterly, slamming the window behind him. "Gits…"

Hermione returned from Hagrid's just before lunch, shivering slightly, her robes damp to the knees.

"So?" said Ron, looking up when she entered. "Got all his lessons planned for him?"

"Well, I tried," she said dully, sinking into a chair beside Harry. She pulled out her wand and gave it a complicated little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip; she then pointed this at her robes, which began to steam as they dried out. "He wasn't even there when I arrived. I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the Forest—"

Harry groaned. "What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" he asked.

"No," said Hermione miserably. "He says he wants them to be a surprise. I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study Knarls than Chimaeras—oh, I don't think he's got a Chimaera," she added at the appalled look on Harry and Ron's faces, "but that's not for lack of trying, from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs. I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what I said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries. And I saw a big bloodstain on the covers of his bed. I'm really worried."

Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table on Monday was not greeted with enthusiasm from all students. Parvati and Lavender weren't happy and Harry almost snapped at how Parvati kept whining to Ichigo about it, but held back when he saw Ichigo looking at Hagrid with an odd gleam in his eyes, as if there was something bugging him from the inside.

Harry didn't know what that was about, but he noticed Ichigo's odd behavior the past day. He didn't do a single thing from his own load of homework and he ate only when Parvati and Neville were especially annoying and otherwise didn't leave the common room at all.

Perhaps he just didn't like half-giants, Harry thought, but a rational part of him told him that Hagrid's return had nothing to do with Ichigo's foul mood. Harry was therefore one of the few that weren't surprised when Ichigo did not appear in Binns' class, or in any other lesson that day.

However, on Tuesday, he had more pressing matters to deal with. Umbridge was inspecting Hagrid's class and Hagrid was actually teaching them about Thestrals… something that, apparently, only people who had seen death could see.

Naturally, she'd questioned the Slytherin's about their opinion on Hagrid, much to Harry's dismay. The only Gryffindor she approached was actually Neville who did seem to be a little uneasy about the whole thing.

"You can see the Thestrals, Longbottom, can you?" she said.

Neville nodded, absently watching the way one of the Thestrals tore through his food.

"Who did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.

"My granddad," he replied, still looking over at them with an odd sort of detachedness in his eyes.

"And what do you think of them?" she said, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to bone.

"They're… nice," he said. "Nicer than you, at any rate."

Umbridge looked like she'd been slapped.

There was a moment of tense silence before a large chunk of students, Gryffindors and Slytherins, burst out laughing.

"That's twenty points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Longbottom! Have you been hanging around Kurosaki too much?"

Umbridge could barely be heard over the loud laugh echoing through the forest. The only people not laughing were Hermione, who was looking at Neville worriedly, and Hagrid, who was just trying to hold his laughter in.

But in whatever daze Neville had been seconds ago, it passed, and he looked at Umbridge a bit nervously. "Uhm… I'm sorry. I just… my head hurts and I've been thinking of weird stuff and—"

"Detention, Longbottom!"

"Ugh… you already know that he won't come," Malfoy said. "After all, with the Mudblood carrot for his best mate, he has now taken to disrespecting professors as well."

Umbridge didn't even spare a look at Malfoy for the world mostly regarded as an insult, instead opting to glare at Neville, who seemed to be dignifiedly ignoring Malfoy. That alone was somewhat alarming.

"I wouldn't really want to agree with Malfoy of all people, but he's kind of right…" Neville admitted reluctantly.

Any further argument was averted by Hagrid reminding them that it was his lesson and that they should focus back on the Thestrals. Most of the students did. Harry didn't fail to notice a strange look on Neville's face as he did it.

Even throughout Herbology later on, Neville still looked somewhat absentminded and he wasn't the only one. Ichigo looked really detached that whole day and not just in Herbology, but whatever gruff he was in at least he didn't skip any lessons that day.

"Hey, you know… I was thinking of asking her out."

Harry turned to look at Ron, who seemed to be looking at Momo.

"You… can't be serious," he commented.

"I know, it's crazy. But then it got me thinking and… why the ruddy hell not? If not… well, then… then I'll at least know for sure."

Harry didn't quite know what to say to that. It made him first feel silly because it never even occurred to him to ask Cho out once again after that whole Yule Ball thing, then apprehensive when he thought about the fact that she used to be Cedric's girlfriend.

What he did know for sure was that Ron didn't follow through with his plan, not even a week later.

* * *

A tall figure with a sword as long as his body.

That image kept popping in her head at the strangest moments. When she was eating, or doing homework or just in general trying to fall asleep, but not once did she actually dream of it. Before now.

It was an image that had stalked through Parvati's mind and sort of got stuck there. She could never see it clearly before, only a shade, a shadow of it. Ever since the day after the Quidditch game against Slytherin, the form was becoming more than just a shadow. She could now tell what the clothes were – black, wide sleeves just as wide legs – and she could even tell apart the sandals from the actual skin, but the figure was still too shadowed for her to tell anything else.

With every passing day, she saw more and more details about the mysterious person, such as the red stripe (or was it chain?) going across his chest, who she assumed would have to be Ichigo. However, her conclusion and awareness did not make the silhouette any clearer. At times, it only got duller instead.

But that night, approximately week and a half after it started getting clearer, something about it changed.

The image was now crystal clear and she saw Ichigo in some really strange clothes with a furious expression on his face and for a second she was worried that it was directed at her, but it was more as if he was looking _through_ her. The sword in his hand was held as if he was preparing to attack, but somehow he looked as if he was frozen; like something was literally holding him tied to the spot.

And then half of a dark red–or is it black?–on white mask covers his face and his sclera turns black and pupils yellow and a second later there is a grin unfurling over his face that went against every face expression Parvati had ever seen on him. It spoke about destruction, horror and sheer desire to _kill._

Parvati woke up screaming.

When she finally managed to close her eyes again – after convincing the rest of the dorm that she'd only been having a nightmare – she made a couple of decisions.

One: she had to tell Lavender what she did. The whole hiding scheme wasn't working out and she needed somebody she could confide into.

Two: the first chance she'd get, she would confront Ichigo about the whole issue. She had no idea what it was about, but she _wanted_ to know and there was something plainly disturbing about the fact that he carried such an enormous sword with such ease – if her Inner Eye was not to be fooled by her overly active imagination.

And three: She needed to talk to professor Trelawney and see if that little connection thing she'd done could be removed. No matter how curious, Parvati did _not_ want to wake up screaming any other night, much less see such abhorrent things.

* * *

In the meantime, Ichigo had his own issues to deal with. While important before, regaining his powers now turned into his life mission. He attended classes when he got tired of trying to think of ways to get his powers back that didn't include stealing Hinamori's – or anyone else's, for that matter – and otherwise didn't do any homework at all. It annoyed all the professors who had seen 'potential' in him, but Ichigo could have cared less.

In those rare moments he'd make a break to catch a breath, he'd bang his head about ever asking Hinamori about the whole power transfer thing. He shouldn't have ever even thought of that, much less asked. Rukia had been severely injured and he needed to find a way to fight again, but… not that way.

It was one thing when he'd just been offered to take what was in front of him – to take the power Rukia was willing to give, and even more. Asking that from somebody else was just plainly wrong in more than one way. Especially when that was still against the law, though, honestly, he didn't care. Hinamori was a friend and doing that wasn't something what friends did.

So, when not training with Hinamori, he was trying another absurd, perhaps even at the moment impossible idea.

He was trying to get into his Inner World.

While the idea in general was ridiculous – Shinigami only should be able to do that and right now Ichigo was by no means Shinigami – Ichigo still held onto the hope that maybe, just _maybe_, he could pull that off. So far, sitting cross-legged with_out_ a Zanpakuto in his lap was proving to be rather ineffective, but he couldn't give up.

He had to try… and if it didn't work, he'd just have to get to whatever level Hinamori wanted him to before pulling off anything. Somehow, that thought didn't give him much peace – which only got him more frustrated in the long run because he was pretty sure he saw a hint of a sideway skyscraper for a second before he started thinking again and lost his focus.

"Argh… at this rate I'll never make it."

He grit his teeth, realizing there wouldn't be any point in trying anymore. He couldn't focus and he hadn't eaten anything since early in the morning. Picking up his bag, he went down to get some lunch. The Great Hall was somewhat emptier than usual when he arrived, many of the students (mostly fifth and seventh years, really) finishing their homework in the library. Ichigo took a seat next to Neville who seemed to be the only guy from the fifth year at the table.

"Oh, so you remembered that there're still classes today," Neville remarked.

"Are you going to give me another lesson on how school's important and all that stuff?" Ichigo asked grumpily.

"Not really," Neville replied, his face calm. "Just wondering, what are you doing during holidays?"

"Didn't we already have this talk?"

"Um… we did?"

_Oh… so Hinamori erased that, too. Guess it makes sense. _"Err—no. Anyway, I'm going home. …You?"

"Same… Too bad, though. I was thinking of inviting you over. Being alone with Gran is all right, but sometimes it gets downright… dull. But since you're going home, I guess nothing from that…"

"And your parents?"

"Uh… they're… away."

"Away?"

"…All the time."

Ichigo frowned and intentionally stared his plate. "Guess if you have nothing better to do, you could pay a visit to Karakura… It probably isn't going to be cheap, but Yama-jii better not complain. I've—"

"Wait, what?" Neville interrupted him, seemingly forgetting about his meal.

Ichigo groaned.

Neville continued talking immediately. "I mean, yeah, it's probably going to be expensive, but… as long as I have where to stay, getting there really wouldn't be a problem. I'm not exactly rich, but I don't think Gran would mind…"

Now Ichigo just sighed. "Guess that's settled, then."

"You are serious… right?"

"Ugh… don't get on my nerves or I'll just take that offer back."

Neville actually laughed. "I see… Thanks, Ichigo."

"Just shut up, will ya?"


	14. Chapter 13: Undertow

Chapter 13: Undertow

"Hadō no Ichi: Shō!"

Ichigo dived out of the way in the last possible second and slid under one of the desks in the Room of Requirement.

Momo frowned, but quickly followed up on her move. "Bakudō no Ryou: Hainawa!"

Somehow, she wasn't sure how, Ichigo managed to dodge her attack _again_ and get right under her feet before she even realized. She managed to jump back fast enough to dodge the swipe he attempted, then step forward while he was still completely open. She went after a direct punch, which he blocked, but she knocked his arm out of the way with a kick, leaving him completely open and with no chance to avoid anything she had in store for him.

"Hadō no Ichi: Shō!"

The Kido spell hit him dead on, literally sending him flying backwards for about ten feet. Fortunately enough, he landed on the pillows the room had provided.

Momo was about to tell him he did well and that it was enough, but he used the second of her utter lack of attention to his advantage and propelled forwards. Momo managed to stop his fist with both her arms in the last second, but it left her mid-section unprotected. She'd been expecting a kick in the side of sorts just before she felt her feet literally being swept from under her.

_What just…?_

Ichigo lips quirked up, only a little, as he saw the dumbstruck look on her face. "What? You thought that Kido trick was enough to bring me down? You of all people should know better. Congratulations, you were now completely owned by a human… so… can I finally get some dinner?"

Momo blinked a couple of times. "I… uh… yeah. Sure. Dinner time," she said, still completely taken by surprise. Why didn't he…?

But Ichigo was no longer in front of her, instead rubbing his head with a towel to get rid of all the sweat.

"You coming?" he asked.

"A-ah."

_He's really improved a lot in such a short time,_ she thought. _The first estimation was that it would take at least the whole school year to get his Reiryoku level high enough, but at this rate, only another couple of weeks and he'll be ready. At this rate, he may not even have to come back here after the holidays._

But that brought on the other issue she'd noticed recently.

"Hey, Ichigo-kun?" she asked as they descended the stairs.

"Yeah?"

"Why is it that sometimes I feel that your Reiatsu goes completely out of control? Not… just in the point of power, but… finesse, I suppose. Like yesterday. Whatever you've been doing, it's been helping you, yes, but sometimes your power seems like it's going completely out of control."

"What? Really?" he asked, feigning cluelessness. _Ah… so whatever he's up to, he won't tell. Should I even be surprised?_

"_Probably not,"_ Tobiume pointed out.

Momo didn't bother agreeing.

"Oh… well, then… I guess it's all right. Just… be careful, whatever you are up to, all right?"

He was silent for a couple of moments, probably thinking whether he should continue playing ignorance or just go right out and admit that he was up to something. "Yeah… all right."

_Guess it's the latter,_ Momo thought, but a small smile appeared on her face. She liked that about Ichigo-kun. When not brutally honest, you knew he wasn't telling something, but at least he never outright lied. Not to her at least.

_It must be at least ten times harder for him, then… all this. No wonder he just wants to go back._

She sighed. Only a couple more days left. Only a few more days before the Christmas holiday, yet there was still no progress on anything regarding the attack on Kuchiki Rukia. Not even Toshiro-kun and Abarai-kun had managed to find anything while they'd been present and they warned Momo that if something happened, she would always be able to get rid of the limiter.

All of that had been made worse when it turned out that not even Avalon managed to gain any insight of what happened purely because magic interfered with their technology the same way it did to Seireitei's. Toshiro-kun was under impression that somebody from Avalon was in fact the attacker, but he had no way of proving it yet. Momo had her suspicions about that as well. The spike in Reiatsu she'd felt shortly before Kuchiki-san's defeat wasn't high and Momo estimated it to be somewhere at her level, perhaps a little bit weaker, but that was it. She could get no other recognition. A couple of times she thought she may have felt it, it would disappear too quickly for her to inspect and it was always at the worst possible times.

As if somebody was watching her.

Several times she felt like she was actually the next target, but no attack ever came. Somebody was watching her, yes, but she had no way of confirming it. What was worse, somebody was probably watching Ichigo-kun as well.

She waved away to Ichigo-kun as she headed back towards the dormitories to take her Gigai. Gikongan inside was good at handling the girls from Hufflepuff, but keeping it as a replacement for too long was bound to cause suspicions with the girls. There existed no two entities in the world that were completely the same. Somebody was bound to notice the differences soon enough.

* * *

A day.

A mere day, less than twenty four hours: that was all she had left. A single day before the end of the term. A single day before her only way to protect her home traveled to where she couldn't follow. She had a couple ideas of what she could do about it, but she wasn't sure how to go around with it.

It was taking too long.

Ariana wasn't stupid. Hell, she was considered even a genius… _sometimes_. It didn't take brains to know that the battle – the scheme that got her into the living world in the first place – had failed. The resistance had failed. Had it been otherwise, someone would have come for her, she knew. She would have known. Things would have changed.

But as it was, defeat was a given. It's not like they had even stood a chance. Whether her superiors were still alive, Ariana had no idea, but she also couldn't wait to find out. She'd already made them wait too long. At this rate… no, she couldn't think that way.

Maybe _they_ forgot.

_It's been almost a month, maybe they stopped thinking…_ but it was just a delusion. Ariana had been keeping an eye on the second Shinigami from time to time. She could tell the other girl picked up on it a couple of times, but it didn't matter. It was the human boy that was worrying her. His Spiritual Energy was too high for a wizard. If he really was _the_ Ichigo Kurosaki…

_But no. He can't be. Ichigo Kurosaki defeated Aizen. He's got to be more powerful than anyone I know. This kid… he isn't even close to my level, let alone the level necessary to defeat Aizen._

Was that the reason she was hesitating to approach? Well, seeing the way they took what she did, they'd probably attack her before she got to speak, but… maybe somebody else. Somebody who would be able to keep them calm?

_And I know just the right person for this!_

Ariana smiled smugly. Yes, maybe there was a solution, after all.

* * *

The last DA lesson before the Christmas holiday Harry had decided to spend by revising everything they had practiced for the past months. The DA was progressing exceptionally well and he didn't want to start out anything new right before a three-week-long break. Other than Zacharias Smith, no other person complained on his teaching method.

Harry had to admit it to himself that he was proud of them – all of them. Hannah Abbott had literally become a master of Impediment Curse; she could freeze people for almost five minutes. Nobody could match Hermione's variety of charms and jinxes, especially during the mock-duels. And Ichigo of all people was the least likely to get hit with a spell. In their version of mock-duels, out of at least forty spells cast on Ichigo, only eleven had managed to catch the transfer and not one of them _directly_.

When Harry had once called him out on it, Ichigo's response had been: "If I dodge, I won't let them cut me." After seeing Harry's clueless expression, he'd shrugged, elaborating with only: "Urahara's philosophy." As if it explained _everything_…

Harry certainly did not think that way as he was still absolutely clueless on what Ichigo had meant.

But while Ichigo's progress in itself was incredible (his spells were finally _balanced_; there was no longer any need to fear that his Disarming Spell would throw its target ten feet back or not work at all), it was nothing compared to Neville's.

The said Gryffindor was becoming a real_ challenge_ for Harry, not to mention everybody else. Out of the eleven times Ichigo was actually hit with a spell, three of those were Neville's. Two spells had also been cast by Momo and even Harry had managed to hit him twice. Susan, Seamus, Hermione and Justin had scored the rest of those hits.

Other than just the change in his skill and even appearance a little, Harry noticed an important change in Neville's personality; he was becoming confident. It was a bit slow and he was still rather hesitant about a lot of things, but then there were the times (and most of those times included Ichigo) where Neville would just… state his outright opinion. And not even _Snape_ could make him squirm anymore. Look away, yes, but squirm…? It was as if Neville forgot what the word meant. He still sucked with Potions, though.

The lesson had, overall, gone rather well. He'd hinted at the possibility of working on Patronuses right after the holidays, but he was probably going to postpone it a little, he wasn't sure yet. The night itself had been excellent… but then came Cho…

* * *

Ichigo was the first person to leave the Room of Requirement once the DA lesson ended. He didn't bother stopping Neville from following him as he was going back to the Gryffindor Tower anyway, but after leaving his stuff there he'd have to get rid of the other boy.

He was close. He knew he was close.

That Kido trick thingy Ganju had shown him _ages_ ago… it wasn't good for entering the Inner World, but it was working _great_ for utilizing Reiatsu and stuff like that. Except that wasn't what Ichigo was trying to do.

That one time he'd used it with his Shinigami powers, the endless black circle and image of himself diving in it, he didn't stop until he reached the end of that circle. If his memory of that was correct, that had been the first time he'd ever completely released his Reiatsu and things totally went out of control. But he was weaker now. He was weaker than he used to be and he hated it.

He only needed to know how much weaker he was and if maybe, just _maybe_, that was the key to gaining power once again. Magic itself was helpful, but not enough. If he knew only a little bit more about it, just to make sure he wouldn't blow anything up, he'd experiment on that, too. But for now, he wasn't going to deal with it.

"Hey, Neville, I'm going back downstairs," he said as he left his bag and wand at his bed.

"Forgot something?" the aforementioned student asked.

"Nah… Just… wanna test something out."

"Sure you don't need any company? To make sure you don't blow yourself up?" Neville teased. He probably had no idea how close Ichigo's thoughts were to his.

Ichigo smirked. "As if. What? You think I'm not capable of doing something on my own?"

"Come on. You're worse than I am when it comes to performing magic."

"Who said anything about magic?" Ichigo countered before he slipped out of the room. He was too much in a hurry to see it, but something of a worried, thoughtful frown went across Neville's face.

"Guess I should ask him about it when he comes back… There's no point in delaying it anymore…"

* * *

"Hey, Momo! Hey!"

Momo, who'd been walking with Susan back towards the Hufflepuff dorms, turned around. "Oh, Ron…? Is something the matter?"

"Err… you've got a minute? I… wanted to uh… talk to you."

Susan and Hannah exchanged an amused look before waving off.

"Don't let us get in your way," Hannah said jovially as they stalked away.

Momo ignored them. Ron didn't look very comfortable about whatever he'd wanted to talk about; she needed to be prepared for anything. For all she knew, the real memories of what had happened almost a month ago could have returned and she needed to be ready to delay the subject again. She couldn't just tell him the truth about what had happened.

"_You're an idiot, Momo._"

She ignored her Zanpakuto as well; she could talk to Tobiume later.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?" she asked as she fell in step with him, walking slowly in the same direction as the girls from her house walked earlier. She felt a little bit nervous. He was almost as tall as Ichigo-kun and he was only _fifteen_.

"Err… just… what are you doing after the holidays?"

"What?" she asked.

"I mean," he said, purposely looking away from her, "Hermione said Ichigo is hinting that you two aren't coming back for the second term. Something about your term ending in winter, I dunno. Just wanted to know if she was right."

Momo let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding. "Well, umm… Yes. Ichigo-kun probably isn't coming back after the holidays. He's… not really interested."

"And you?"

"Me? What about me?"

"You are coming back, aren't you?"

"I am… I've signed up for a full year, not three months."

Ron actually smiled. Momo noticed the tips of his ears turning red.

"So… umm… well, if you're interested, the first Hogsmeade weekend… would you like to… go eh—with me?"

Momo turned her head towards the Gryffindor so fast that she was surprised that she didn't break her own neck. She wasn't sure what the expression on her face was when she froze in spot and stared at Ron after she realized _exactly_ what he was suggesting. Tobiume's chortling echoing from her Inner World did not help the matters whatsoever.

"I…"

But she was shocked to see how close his face was to hers. His head was bent low, only a couple of inches away from hers. _When_ did he get so close?

Ron seemed to be just as shocked as her, but he wasn't looking away. It was more as if he was steeling himself to do—

Momo felt as if a bolt of lightening struck her as his lips brushed against hers. She couldn't move. She wasn't sure if that was because she simply _couldn't,_ or because she didn't _want _to. The position itself was awkward. Probably even more so for him than for her, but she _wasn't_ moving back. Actually, she only tilted her head a _little_ and the awkwardness just… disappeared. Without a trace.

His lips were on hers, now slowly moving and she found herself responding accordingly. At some point, she found herself making a couple of steps backwards until her back hit the stone wall, but the kiss _still_ didn't end.

They broke apart after what seemed only a couple of seconds, gasping for air.

The common misconception at this point would be that the kiss had left them surprised, shocked or breathless, but really, it was just a misconception. What hindered their breathing was not some crazy passionate kiss neither was expecting or anything even remotely similar to that; it was in fact the force, the sheer power of something that was undeniably _Reiatsu _and at least Captain-class sort that was pressing them from all sides, completely immobilizing them. It was having more of an effect on Ron than Momo, seeing as the former was much less Reiatsu resistant than the latter. It resulted in Ron crushing down to his knees in seconds.

Momo could tell without a doubt that the Reiatsu belonged to nobody else but Kurosaki Ichigo, the former Substitute Shinigami. But there was one thing very much wrong about it. Just _how_ and _when_ did he gain such power back?

"W-what…?" Ron gasped.

"Ichigo-kun…" _just what did you do? _

Her eyes landed upon Ron. _There's no way going around it now. _Immediately, she swallowed her Gikongan, effectively exiting her Gigai. It was a bit easier to breathe now that she was out of it. But as quickly as the force came crashing down on them, it also stopped. Momo wasn't sure what it was about, but just in case, she gripped her Zanpakuto.

"Take care of him!" she ordered the Gikongan before falling into a Shunpo, heading towards where she could tell Ichigo-kun was. She registered the Reiatsu that had caused those wounds to Kuchiki-san, but it was nowhere near Ichigo.

She needed to hurry. Whatever had happened, it was not good.

Back in the hall leading from the Room of Requirement, Ron sat, leaned against the wall, breathing hard. "What… just… happened…? I… I just saw… double Momo?"

The Artificial soul in Momo's body wasn't quite sure what to say to that.

In the meantime, Momo slipped through the corridors and it took her several seconds to reach Ichigo's location. She wanted to tell him that he was crazy for doing something – she had no idea what exactly – reckless in an _empty classroom_ where anyone could have come across him, but she realized it was a really stupid thing to reprimand him for. The whole school must have felt his little outburst. She'd be officially disappointed if Avalon hadn't as well.

But when she saw him gasping for air as if he'd been drowning moments before, the only thing keeping him steady being the cold brick wall and one hand clutched at his chest, she decided to postpone her rant a little.

"Ichigo-kun…"

He gave a small nod, she wasn't sure why, before he simply stumbled down into a sitting position with his back against the wall, still gasping for air.

"What were you doing, Ichigo-kun? What were you _doing_? _How?_"

"No… idea…" he said, his breathing finally calming down. "Remind me… not to… do that again."

"What did you do?" she repeated. "Whatever it was, that was _your_ Reiatsu and it was far above Captain class. Weren't your powers supposed to be gone? Right now, you're at the same level as you were before… before you did what you did… Ichigo-kun…"

"I've no idea," he said quietly. "Thought it'd work…"

"And what was it supposed to do? Just what were you doing?

"Telling you, I've no idea! Just some old trick Ganju taught me. Focusing Reiatsu… using it as a shortcut to performing Kido… something like that, I don't know. I thought it'd be useful to say exactly how much power I have, because what you sense is never _everything_… but… I have no idea what the hell just happened."

Just from looking at him, Momo could tell that his own Reiatsu had had the same effect on him as it had on everybody else who might have felt it. That was not natural. Maybe it was because he was still in a human body, but not even a human should be drowning in his own power. It wasn't possible.

_Trust Ichigo-kun to pull off the impossible, _she thought absently.

"Well, no helping it now. Just… if anyone asks, you have no idea what happened. All right?"

"Err… I _don't_ know what happened."

"Even better," Momo said. "Now… to make sure you're not going to repeat it…"

"What? Hinamori, what are you—?"

"Hadō no Ichi: Shō!"

Ichigo managed to scramble away in the last second. "What the hell? Are you crazy? What's wrong with you, kicking people when they're already down?"

"I've learned it a while ago that telling you what to do and what not to do just doesn't work," Momo said calmly. "The only way to teach you anything is to literally beat it into you, isn't that correct?"

"Wha—? NO! That's not true and you know it!"

"Then maybe I just want to get my temper out on you? You almost gave me a heart attack over something you never even carefully thought through. Face it, you deserve to be beat up for that. Break away from this, Ichigo-kun. Bakudō no Ichi: Sai!"

Ichigo groaned as the binding spell caught him forcing him face down into the marble floor.

"Don't you have other stuff to do than taking revenge on me? Like erasing memories of another innocent student who saw you leave your Gigai? Or, I dunno, style your hair or _something_."

At this, Momo paused. _Oops._

Seeing the expression on her face, Ichigo asked, "So you messed up, too?"

"Uh… sort of, yeah," she admitted hesitantly.

"What? What did you do?"

"Umm… I swallowed a Gikongan in front of Ron Weasley…"

"As if this couldn't get any worse," Ichigo groaned. "It's just a matter of time before they remember, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but that isn't exactly the problem here," Momo said.

"Then what is? They remembered already or what?"

Later, she knew she'd probably regret it, but for now, she had a feeling she could trust Ichigo-kun. And besides, he was a male, maybe he'd be able to help her with this. There was no way she could ask either Tobiume or any other person and she'd be too embarrassed to bring it up to Rangiku-san or Toshiro-kun, they'd tease her forever… and Ichigo-kun really never seemed like he cared, so…

"Umm… I sort of did that… after he stopped kissing me."

Contrary to her expectations, Kurosaki Ichigo was not a voice of reason and probably never would be. In this particular situation, he was blankly staring at her, almost as if he was taking his time to think about what she just said.

What left his mouth was a dull, completely uncomprehending, "Huh?"

Momo buried her face in her palms. "Never mind, Ichigo-kun. Forget that I said anything in the first place…"

"You just said he kissed you."

"Well, yes… but really, forget about it. There's nothing you can do about it."

"I could probably get him to lay off if it turns out to be a problem," he pointed out.

Momo actually smiled a little. "I suppose so, but there's already enough weird stuff going on. I really doubt it will become too much of an issue later on. Besides, it's partly my fault, too. I'm the one who has to deal with it."

He stared at her contemplatively for a short time. "Whatever," he said in the end. "Can you get this binding spell off already, now that you don't look like you want to murder me? I could probably try and break it, but I'm tired enough already even without that effort."

Momo rolled her eyes. "_Don't_ experiment again," she told him.

Ichigo snorted.

* * *

Ariana slipped into the Headmaster's office through the window as if it was the most natural thing to do. Even if she had known the password, she probably would have done the same thing without much thought, really. The reason for that was mostly because looking through the window was the best way to make sure nobody was inside and right now, aside from Albus Dumbledore, there was nobody else inside.

Well, there was Fawkes, but Ariana liked the bird so it didn't really matter.

"Good evening," she said.

She blinked in surprise when the old headmaster gasped as if he'd seen a ghost – which, in essence, he was looking at.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it that abrupt," she said, but the look of shock wasn't dying away. Could they have—?

"…Ariana?" his voice was shaky, his eyes wide, almost like the first time she talked to him and he actually stood up in surprise.

_Oh, I don't believe this! They actually erased his memories! I hate my luck!_

"No… please don't tell me… you don't remember, do you?" she said pitifully, lowering her head. "I thought that maybe there was still hope and you were keeping an eye on them – so I thought they didn't really erase your memories… oh, this just keeps getting more complicated."

A couple of minutes of silence in which Ariana wondered whether just attacking that other Shinigami would solve the problem, when…

"I suppose you are referring to what those two transfer students may have done," Albus Dumbledore noted solemnly, but in low voice. She was actually taken aback at how calm he sounded about the whole thing. "I must say, I am rather confused as well. I clearly remember that their purpose here is to spy on the Ministry, but my Pensieve also stored some rather different memories. However, now, whenever I try thinking about either of those things, which do seem to be happening at the same time, I get an awful headache. You don't suppose you could explain me what it is about."

Ariana didn't bother to keep her groan inside. "All right. I am officially beginning to hate Shinigami. _Why? _Why must they be so thorough?"

She glanced at Albus, a soft, bit of a sad look in her eyes and said, "You better sit down for this. You probably aren't going to like it."

He gave her a nod, before taking out his wand and waving it, conjuring a cozy armchair behind Ariana. She blinked a couple of times as he took his seat, before sighing and doing the same.

"All right… to make this clear, there are only two things the Shinigami could have done. One," she said, showing her thumb, "is completely removing your memories. Of course, we can immediately rule out that option because it wouldn't give them any answers, plus you'd remember what happened sooner or later. And having a hole in your memory where you have no idea what you've been doing is bound to make more obvious that something had happened thus easier to remember later on. Am I making any sense?"

"I suppose," Albus said, but she took it more as a 'not really'. Mentally, Ariana groaned.

"Then, what is the second thing?"

"That one's a bit more complicated," she said with a frown. "I'm glad to see you've at least listened to me and put all the important memories in the Pensieve."

"Well, yes, I do remember you making that special request," Albus noted. Ariana allowed a small smile.

"Probably because it has nothing to do with what the Shinigami wanted to erase," she explained. "The second thing they could have done is used a special memory substitution device. It allows them to swap whatever memories they deem necessary with other memories that enable them to do whatever they like. That's the same thing I did. There are only maybe one or two such devices in each respective Soul Society, but that isn't of that much importance to you."

"I would like to say that I still don't understand what you are speaking about," Albus said. "Is that based on some special magical principle or…?"

"No, of course not. It's all about mechanics and extensive use of Spiritual Particles which explaining to you would only get you more confused. Trust me, I tried the last time. The important thing is, those modified thingies are permanent. Even used on somebody with great Spiritual Energy, it will take _months,_ if not years, to remember the true events and even then they wouldn't be complete."

Albus smiled softly, eyes twinkling. "It does seem as if you are well acquainted with those devices."

Ariana smiled back. "It just so happens that I stole one about a year ago. Now, the good thing about all this is that you've listened to me. You saved those memories and you could watch them, but once they went back inside your head, it probably went nuts. It explains your headaches. That memory substitution device is still in effect and will be until the day you die. It's also modified to search for particular memories and stop them from resurfacing ever again, or at least it should be. When you just sort of returned those memories, you… well, you unintentionally activated that particular effect and it is now trying to eat away _all_ the memories, which I'm pretty sure is impossible. I'm not sure what happens after that. Either way you'll remember what happens now no matter what."

"I'm still rather clueless on what you are talking about," the Headmaster told her. The twinkle in his eyes died down as he looked her straight in the eyes. "How… how is it possible?"

Ariana shrugged, realizing his point right away. "I'm a Soul Reaper. We're the only types of souls actually allowed to travel between the worlds."

"May you please elaborate?"

Ariana shook her head with a small smile. "If you're a Soul Reaper, it means you've got Spiritual Energy and you've joined the Military force. You can travel from Soul Society to the living world only with special permissions, but the point is, you _can_ do it. Other types of souls can't. Or at least they _shouldn't_."

An empty, mirthless chuckle escaped her.

"I… see. And you have been sent here for a reason." Of course, it was not a question.

"Yes," she replied honestly. "Avalon is the middle of a civil war, for the lack of a better term. We need help. And we can only rely on the Japanese because… well, I don't know. I'm not the one who came up with the idea. I'm just the one who got sent to execute it. And I screwed up. Twice."

"Is there anything I can… do to help?"

The look in his eyes was that of genuine concern – and was also the reason Ariana was there in the first place. Albus felt guilty over her death, she knew that. She also knew he'd be the first person to step up and help her precisely because of it. And she didn't hesitate in using it up to the fullest.

"Yes, yes there is," she said. "I need to talk to them; those two transfers of yours. I recently knocked out one of their own so I'm probably not a friend on their list, but… I have to talk to them. Could you… arrange that? They probably won't be coming back after tomorrow and it's my last chance. Please."

"I see… But that outburst of power this evening…?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki, I'd say. And if I'm right, he's that one person who can ultimately help me end the war. Please, Albus."

"All right," he said gravely. "I'll tell Minerva and Pomona to bring them here. Is there any place you can go to while we wait for them to arrive?"

"I could just wait outside the window? It's just one of the powers I possess, solidifying the air under my feet," she said with a shrug.

"Yes, I suppose that would do," Albus said slowly. "Ariana, I… I am honestly truly sorry… about everything."

Ariana just nodded before slipping through the open window. Telling him that she honestly didn't care because he was practically a stranger to her now probably wouldn't help matters. Besides, she was no longer Ariana Dumbledore. That girl died years ago. Now she was Ariana Ray…

And she had a husband to avenge.

* * *

"Huh?"

"I said, Mr. Kurosaki, the Headmaster wishes to speak to you regarding your return to Japan."

Ichigo scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I heard that the first time. I was just wondering why he wants to discuss that topic in the middle of the night."

"Well, that is something you can ask him about once you get to the office," McGonagall told him briskly. "Come along now."

Clearly, she was in just as great mood as Ichigo was.

He looked to the side, noticing Neville's concerned face. He stood up.

"Do me a favor and if I stay talking to the Headmaster for too long, finish my essay too."

"What? No way! You don't do your essays anyway, why would I finish them for you?" Neville said.

"Fine. Then don't," Ichigo replied. He left the common room with McGonagall rather calmly. Behind them, Neville just rolled his eyes.

Minerva McGonagall, however, kept her eyes on the transfer student. Kurosaki Ichigo was a mystery; an enigma. Perhaps even the Rubik's cube that she simply couldn't solve. In less than three months he'd managed to ultimately change the most unconfident student in the castle into something… something different. Something with determination and energy and motivation. Of course, Longbottom was still Longbottom and his essays were just as bad as they used to be, but the way the boy held himself was… different.

Befriending Kurosaki changed him, and Minerva wasn't sure it was all for the better. Neville was now just as likely to get in trouble as Harry, Ron and Hermione were in their _first_ year. But at the rate it was going, by the end of the year, Neville would become just as defiant and uncontrollable as Kurosaki.

As if handling the entire Gryffindor house wasn't enough trouble already.

She left Kurosaki after sharing the password with the Gargoyle. Just imagining the potential chaos if Longbottom became a troublemaker with his beliefs… no. It was not a thought that brought peace to her at all.

In the meantime, Ichigo raised an eyebrow when he saw Hinamori standing before the final door that led towards the Headmaster's office.

"Aren't you going to get in?"

"Somebody else is inside," she told him.

"Who?"

"I'm not sure… whoever it is, I think they may have been the ones to attack Kuchiki-san."

Ichigo's hand was already on the handle, gripping it slightly tighter than necessary. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Hinamori looked like she wanted to give him a good reason, but then she just shook her head.

Taking it as a cue, Ichigo walked into the office, Hinamori trailing behind. The sight that greeted them inside was the Headmaster sitting at his desk, wearing dark blue robes, eyes focused somewhat on the girl sitting at the edge of the desk.

Ichigo didn't have to look at her twice to know that she was neither a human nor a witch, but a Shinigami. Or the British equivalent of it, at any rate. If the uniform—unbuttoned scarlet coat with an odd shaped symbol of a shield etched at the left upper sleeve over a simple black shirt and black trousers—wasn't enough of a giveaway, the spear resting over the girls back definitely was.

She looked up and blue clashed with brown for a split second before she looked at Hinamori instead.

"Oh, Miss Hinamori, Mr. Kurosaki, now that you're here, take the seats," Dumbledore said, gesturing at the two armchairs that seemed to be waiting for them.

Ichigo ignored him, instead glaring at the girl who looked back at him defiantly. The staring contest went on for a rather short while.

"You have something to ask, don't you?" she said. "Go ahead."

"Are you the one who hurt Rukia?"

"I suppose there really isn't any point in hiding it. Yes, I did it, but I had—"

She was forced to move out of the comfortable position to dodge the punch that had been threatening to impact her face.

"Hey, what is the matter with you? I'm trying to talk here! Don't you know it's rude—" she ducked under the second punch "—to interrupt people—" she evaded the third one, in the process grabbing his wrist and twisting it "—especially when they are in the middle of an explanation?"

He managed to shake her off with a grunt.

"Please, there is no need to use violence…"

But Dumbledore was ultimately ignored.

"Ichigo-kun, stop that!" Hinamori tried.

"Like hell I'm gonna stop," Ichigo snapped, glaring at Ariana who was rubbing her wrist and glaring back. The way he just twisted her arm completely to get rid of her hold on him… that kid was no beginner.

"So what? You're just going to attack me blindly despite the fact I've took out one of you in a single attack?" she asked.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Ichigo countered.

Ariana actually sneered. "You're joking, right? You had a chance to score a hit on me just now. Why didn't you do it?"

"As if that's any of your business," he muttered, trying to kick her from the side, but she blocked with her lower arm, not even flinching.

"I had a reason, damn it!" she yelled, jumping back. "I'm not going to say it was a good one, but it seemed like one back at the time!"

"As if there's a _good_ reason for nearly slicing somebody in half!" Ichigo shouted as he attempted another kick. Ariana made another step back, his foot barely missing her nose.

"I just said it wasn't a good one, you idiot!" she snapped. "It seemed like an acceptable option at the time so I just went ahead and did it! Will you stop trying to attack me already and listen? If you still want a fight later, then sure, but right now there's much more important stuff that you don't know about and I'm the only one who can tell you!"

Her eyes widened at the foot that stopped moving only an inch away from her chin.

She started breathing again once Ichigo Kurosaki withdrew and gave her a rather unnerving look. "Start talking, then."

Ariana sent a fleeting glance towards Hinamori, who just nodded with her eyes contemplative. She took a deep breath and started.

"My name is Ariana Ray and I'm the Lieutenant-General of the Strike-Force two of the Military unit of Avalon—"

"Am?" Hinamori interrupted her. "Are you suggesting that you are actually a high-ranked officer? Why would you ever carry out an attack—"

"—and I'm here to request aid from Seireitei," Ariana interrupted her, but her words effectively stunned Hinamori into silence.

As for Ichigo, not so much.

"So what? First you attack Rukia and now you're asking for our help? Who do you think you're kidding?"

"I'm serious! The situation is a catastrophe!" Ariana snapped. "Look, I'm really sorry for attacking that girl, but this is bigger than her. This is bigger than her, you and even me. Blake Prescott has taken over Avalon completely and if his initial objectives haven't changed, he's going after the King's Key!"

Whatever reaction she'd been expecting, it was not what she got.

Hinamori cocked her head, somewhat confusedly and Ichigo was looking at her as if he was mocking her.

"And what's that got to do with us?" he asked.

"You don't understand! The last time he tried that many of our soldiers died – and some of yours as well! And that wasn't even the beginning! That bastard had been screwing with all of our heads! The bomb set in London had only been a decoy and he actually let himself be caught! After that—after that he just killed everyone in his way. Well, not killed, as General Bowen is still alive, but still. After that he escaped. And then _half of the fucking Avalon joined him!_"

She watched with satisfaction how Hinamori's eyes widened and Ichigo's scowl got more intense as they realized what at least a part of it meant.

"It doesn't end there," she continued in lower voice. "Avalon is split in seven different units or groups – you can call them whatever you like. Three of those are Strike-Forces and each has its special purpose. Two are the Defense Units and there is also the Medical Unit. The final unit is the Elite. It is the smallest group of about hundred officers – each of them somewhere around my level. By the end of the first week of Prescott's rebellion, those of the Elite who didn't join him were either killed or depowered. And don't even get me started on the Generals. There are four out of seven alive. Prescott and his lackey are two of them. Generals White and Bowen are the other two, but General Bowen is still hanging between life and death – nobody knows what Prescott's done to her and it's been almost a _year_."

Now, Hinamori gasped. "So, what you are saying is—"

"Things got fucked up the moment that Captain of yours left Avalon! An hour later I was sent to get help, but… but I thought Dan was still alive. Prescott screwed me over and I was clueless, so I bought him time like he'd asked. Instead of telling that Captain what was going on, I just sort of… did the same thing you guys did to him," Ariana said, pointing her thumb at Dumbledore. "Then I forced him to play a part in my little trap of pulling you guys here, but things went out of control. I really didn't mean to attack that girl, but… I couldn't risk it. I attacked because I—"

She was interrupted by the three sudden knocks at the oak door. Dumbledore's eyes had a worried gleam in them for just a second, but it disappeared the moment the door started opening. The four occupants of the room just stared as McGonagall, Ron and Harry emerged.

"Oh, it's you Professor McGonagall… and… ah."

Utter silence ensued.

* * *

Neville looked down at his essay (one he should hand over after the holidays, but he decided to work on it anyway) as he watched Ichigo and professor McGonagall leave. It was half past eleven, what could the Headmaster possibly want to talk about? Something was going on and Neville had no idea what.

_Does… it have something to do with that girl?_ He wondered.

At first, his memories of the day of the Quidditch game were things that didn't make sense. First of all, why would he ever go with Harry, Ron and Hermione to talk to Hagrid? Yes, he liked Hagrid, but he wasn't close with him the way the other three were.

But the more he thought about it, the more the images began to change. It was driving him nuts during the first day and Ichigo was acting just _so_ weird, even for him – but then, the night between the first Monday and Tuesday of the incident, everything returned clearly. The girl in the weird clothes… Momo and the weird magic… the look on Ichigo's face—_everything_.

He'd wanted to talk to Ichigo ever since, but he saw it well how much that night had had an effect on his friend, so he'd delayed it. He'd been delaying it for a while and had McGonagall not showed up a minute ago, he probably would have asked.

_I guess I could also ask him when we go to Japan… _Neville mused. It was an acceptable idea, because Ichigo wouldn't be able to evade the question then. If the call was still on, at any rate. Ichigo never mentioned anything about it after the initial talk and he'd only nodded when Neville told him he'd be able to come right after Christmas and stay during the rest of the holidays.

Deciding he really couldn't focus on an essay he had another three weeks to finish, Neville closed his books and went over to sit next to Ron who was looking much more thoughtful than usual.

"Harry and Hermione went to bed already?" he asked.

"Yeah… he was a bit flustered because of that Chang girl… and Hermione's off finishing those hats of hers… she's mental," Ron replied, gazing at the fire.

"So… what's up with you?"

Ron was silent.

"I mean, you don't have to say, really, but you look troubled—"

"I kissed Momo."

Neville's eyes widened at the declaration. "Oh… OH—and… um… how was it?"

"Great."

"Real—"

"Up until she swallowed some candy and then there were suddenly two of her – one with a bloody sword that disappeared a second later and one that was _not_ her. And before that there was this crushing force… I felt like an ant about to be stepped on. Is that normal?"

Neville recalled the pressure he'd also felt shortly after leaving the DA lesson. "Uh… no. No, it probably isn't."

"And is it wrong if I suddenly start thinking that all of it is got something to do with Momo and Ichigo?"

Neville actually thought about it before answering. Whatever that force had been—it hadn't been normal. He couldn't immediately point at anyone, especially not his best friend—because really, that's what Ichigo was—but Ron had a point. In the center of every odd event for the past four months it was always at least one of them, if not both.

"I suppose you're right," he said quietly. "Wait—did you say she had a sword?"

"Yeah… I think it's like, the third time I saw it."

"_Third?_"

"Yeah… I saw it once at the start of the year… then back when Hagrid returned… can't believe I didn't remember that until tonight… and then when there were suddenly _two of Momo_ there. Just… what the bloody hell is going on?"

Neville frowned. "Yeah… I'd really like to know that, too. Think we should just ask? I mean, maybe they'll answer…"

"Tomorrow morning, yeah," Ron said. "Harry and Hermione also want to know what it's all about. Come on, let's get up to bed now."

"I suppose we could," Neville agreed.

They've been walking right up the staircase towards their dorm when Seamus ran past them, nearly knocking Neville over.

"Oh—sorry—I just… Potter's going crazy!"

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked disbelievingly.

"He's trashing like crazy! I'm going to get McGonagall! See if you can get him to calm down."

And Seamus ran past them. Ron and Neville exchanged a look before storming upstairs. There, Harry was breathing hard, looking around frantically.

"Harry! Hey, Harry! What's wrong with you?" Ron asked.

It was right then that Harry rolled over on the other side of the bed and vomited on the floor.

"Is there anything we can do?" Neville asked to Dean who was already there, looking clueless on what he should do.

"I don't know! Seamus went to get McGonagall… he's been like this for the past couple of minutes. I don't know what's wrong with him!"

"Harry, mate, look at me!" Ron told him.

"Your dad…" Harry panted, "your dad's… been attacked…"

"What?" Ron asked, uncomprehendingly.

"Your dad! He's been bitten, it's serious… there was blood everywhere…"

Ron stared at him, starting to feel rather uneasy. "Harry, mate, you… you were just dreaming…"

"No! NO, it wasn't! It wasn't a dream! I was there… I saw it…"

"Harry, you're sick. Calm down, Seamus' gone for help…"

"I'm fine!" Harry snapped. "There's nothing wrong with me, it's your dad you've got to worry about! We need to find out where he is—he's bleeding like mad—I—there was a huge snake!"

He was interrupted by professor McGonagall's arrival with Seamus, looking as id she'd just gotten out of bed herself. "What is it, Potter? Where does it hurt?"

"It's Ron's dad! He's been attacked by a snake and it's serious! I saw it happen!"

"What do you mean, you saw it happen?"

"I was asleep, there was this girl and then it changed and I was just _there_…"

"You mean you dreamed this?"

"No! It wasn't a dream! I was dreaming something completely different, but then it changed! It was real, I know it was real! Mr. Weasley was on the floor and he was attacked by this gigantic snake, there was a load of blood—someone's got to find where he is!"

Ron just kept looking from Harry to professor McGonagall, then back at Harry, unable to understand what the bloody hell was going on. But then, McGonagall was actually looking at Harry as though she was horrified.

"I'm not lying and I'm not mad!" Harry snapped.

It seemed to break her out of her fit and she nodded.

"I believe you, Potter. Put on your dressing gown—we're going to see the Headmaster. You too, Weasley."

She didn't appear to have noticed that Ron was still dressed in his clothes for the day, but she also didn't appear to care. With a last fleeting glance towards Neville, Ron followed McGonagall and Harry towards the Headmaster's office, feeling stunned.

They could hear somebody yelling after the gargoyle let them on the staircase, but Ron couldn't bring himself to care. _Just what is going on?_

Everything seemed to be going completely and utterly mental? Was it perhaps somebody's idea of a sick joke?

But then the oak door opened and behind them, Ron could clearly recognize the Headmaster sitting at his desk with a grave expression, Momo standing a couple of feet away from the door with her eyes wide and Ichigo standing perhaps three feet away from a blonde girl with an unreadable expression on his face. And then Ron saw that the girl had a freaking spear hanging over her back.

Things just kept going from irritatingly complicated to absolute madness.

And somehow, Ron knew, it was only going to get worse.

* * *

Heh. So it's a bit shorter than usual... but this seemed like a perfect place to end it. So it turns out it was Ariana who messed with Soifon's memories, she's also one of the good guys with her own agenda... hmm... So yeah, this chapter was literally assaulting with information and answers and even more questions. What can I say? Review. It gets me to write faster!


	15. Chapter 14: Way to start a holiday

Sorry for the wait, guys. Awesome weather outside is really an amazing distraction from staying inside. This chapter is also a bit shorter than usual, but hey, it's over 8k so it's okay. Most of the chapters in the future are probably going to be around 8 or 9k anyway.

Also, because I was in a hurry to update, some of the final scenes in this chapter are probably going to be edited in the following few days. Minor details, wording and grammar only, I'd say, but don't hesitate to point out anything you see that may have been done the wrong way. Isn't that what criticism is all about?

* * *

Chapter 14: Way to start a holiday

Ichigo was pretty sure that now he wouldn't be able to hear why Ariana thought her attack on Rukia was justified. But at the same time, he didn't really want that subject discussed in front of Ron and Harry—and they looked pale enough even without learning about the whole afterlife issues.

The first person to actually speak again was McGonagall, though her voice was rather reproachful.

"Professor Dumbledore, Potter has had… well, a nightmare. He says—"

"It wasn't a nightmare!"

Ichigo and Hinamori completely froze in their spots.

"Very well, then, Potter, you tell the Headmaster about it."

Ariana noticed the way the Japanese stiffened and snorted. "What? Don't tell me you've modified his memories, too?"

Everyone just stared at her.

The look of betrayal coming from Ron, who seemed to have realized what she'd just said, stung. Ichigo couldn't really continue looking in his eyes.

"…That doesn't… that doesn't matter now!" Harry said suddenly. "Ron's dad—Mr. Weasley has been bitten by a snake! He's dying! We have to find out where he is! It was real, I swear."

"I suppose we are going to have to finish our talk some other time, Ariana, Mr. Kurosaki, Miss Hinamori," Dumbledore said quietly.

"I—yeah… I suppose so," Hinamori mumbled, not tearing her eyes away from Ron, who seemed to be looking at her especially. "We can finish this talk outside," she told Ariana, who looked rather skeptical. "Or better yet, I'll take us to Seireitei immediately so you can tell Captain Commander what you just told us."

"Wait, you're just going to let her attack on Rukia go and help her?" Ichigo demanded to know in disbelief.

"It is not my place to judge," Hinamori said quietly. "If the Captain Commander says we are going to help, then that is what we are going to do. If he says otherwise, then so be it. Now let's go. The Headmaster has other issues to deal with."

She walked straight out trough the door, keeping her head low when she passed by Ron. Ariana looked from Hinamori to Dumbledore to Ichigo and shrugged, following the Shinigami. Ichigo's fists shook a little, but he followed as well, looking at neither Harry nor Ron as he walked.

The door of the office closed behind him.

"So now what?"

"Now we go to Seireitei," Hinamori said as they descended the spiral stairs.

"You can't be serious. After what she did to Rukia, you're really going to just let it pass?" Ichigo asked not bothering to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Look, I—"

"I didn't ask you anything!" Ichigo snapped at Ariana, then turned back to Hinamori.

"Do we have a choice?" Hinamori asked. "She isn't lying and you don't even look like you've been paying attention, but she's the reason we're here, Ichigo-kun! She's the one who apparently changed Soifon-taichō's memories, subsequently sending us here. And now we also learned why. But if another—soul—is trying to enter the Royal Dimension, she is right. This is bigger than any of us. Don't you remember what happened the last time?"

She was looking at him persistently and she did not in anyway look happy. Ichigo scowled at her.

Finally, he was the first to look away.

"He doesn't have the Hogyoku, does he?" he asked Ariana in low voice.

"The _what_?"

"I'd say that's a no. Then how the hell does he plan on getting that King's Key? Steal it?"

"What—? I don't know that! Whatever you may think, I'm not in on Prescott's plans. If you ask me, he's screwing with all of us. If I know anything about him, that's that Prescott isn't an ambitious bastard and he sucks as a leader, but once he starts messing with your head, he doesn't _quit_."

"So…" Ichigo started as they paused in one of the halls, "Is it because of that guy's habit to mess with people's heads that you attacked Rukia?"

"I…" Ariana opened her mouth, then closed them. Seeing as he wasn't going to let her off the hook and she knew it, she told him in low voice, "Not the way you would think. Look, I'm sorry for hurting your girlfriend or whatever she is, and had I been thinking straight, I never would've done it. The important thing is that she is alive and that we've managed to clear up some of the problems. Isn't that so?"

Ichigo still continued glaring at her. "I… guess…" he admitted grudgingly. "And she's not my girlfriend!"

Ariana's lips curved on up. "If you say so… Now, about the visit to Seireitei?"

"We're leaving as soon as I get the permission to open the gate," Hinamori said. "Since I won't be coming back for the end of the term, could you let the Headmaster know, Ichigo-kun?"

"I… fine. And if he asks if we're coming back for the next term?"

"I don't know yet," Hinamori admitted. "We may even have to turn Hogwarts into our base of operations if Blake Prescott has really taken over Avalon completely – assuming we even respond to the call for help."

"So what—? Should I just tell him probably and leave it at that?" Ichigo asked, crossing his arms.

Momo nodded. "Yes, I believe that would be the best course of action. Follow me, then, Lieutenant-General Ray. I have to contact Seireitei for permission to open the gate first." She then disappeared with a Shunpo.

Ariana looked straight at Ichigo. "Look, if you see that girl before I do, which is very unlikely, but… just tell her I'm really sorry about what I did." Not waiting for a response, she disappeared as well.

Ichigo grunted in his chin as he went walking back towards the Headmaster's office. He just entered the hall leading to it when he noticed McGonagall walking towards him. "Err—"

"I'm not even going to tell you to get to bed," she said sharply. "If you still have to speak to the Headmaster, just wait until I return so you can get in."

"Right…" Ichigo mumbled and she stormed past him. Seeing as he really had no better option but to wait, he leaned against the wall, glaring at the gargoyle. Maybe it was just him, but that thing looked like it was _alive._ It was only a couple of minutes later that McGonagall returned with Fred, George and Ginny running behind her.

"Ichigo, what—?" one of the twins started to say, but was interrupted when McGonagall ushered him up the stairs towards Dumbledore's office. Ichigo followed.

"Don't look at me," he said as the other one opened his mouth as well. "I've no idea what's going on."

They were stopped from responding him when they entered the office in which Harry and Ron already were, looking thoroughly exhausted.

"Harry, what's going on?" Ginny asked, somewhat frightened. "Professor McGonagall says you saw dad get hurt—"

"Your father has been injured in the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix," Dumbledore said before Harry could even start, with only a fleeting look towards Ichigo. Ichigo got the impression that the subject wasn't really meant for everyone's ears, but it wasn't _his_ fault that he had to stay. "He has been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you back to Sirius's house, which is much more convenient for the hospital than The Burrow. You will meet your mother there."

"How're we going?" asked Fred, looking shaken. "Floo powder?"

"No," said Dumbledore, "Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the Network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey." He indicated the old kettle lying innocently on his desk. "We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back… I want to be sure that the coast is clear before sending you—"

There was a flash of flame in the middle of the office, leaving only a single golden feather that floated gently to the floor.

"It is Fawkes's warning," said Dumbledore, catching the feather as it fell. "Professor Umbridge must know you're out of your beds… Minerva, go and head her off—tell her any story—"

McGonagall was gone in a matter of a second.

"He says he'll be delighted," said a bored voice behind Dumbledore. Ichigo quickly reassured himself that no, it was _not_ freaky when portraits talked. It was Hogwarts, after all, he'd had months to get used to it. "My great-great-grandson has always had an odd taste in house-guests."

"Come here, then," Dumbledore told Harry and the Weasleys. "And quickly, before anyone else joins us."

Harry and the others gathered around Dumbledore's desk.

"What about him?" Ron asked, indicating at Ichigo who was standing at the side awkwardly.

"Mr. Kurosaki and I have one more conversation to uphold," Dumbledore replied. "You have all used a Portkey before?" he asked, and they nodded, each reaching out to touch some part of the blackened kettle. "Good. On the count of three, then… one… two…"

The group of them disappeared from the room in a small flash, leaving behind Ichigo and Dumbledore alone.

"Now, Mr. Kurosaki, as you can see, another problem has unfolded. I do hope you have managed to reach an agreement with Ariana—"

"Yeah, right," Ichigo snorted.

"—and I would just ask you if you could wait for me here for another couple of minutes while I see to it that professor Umbridge does not find out the truth behind their abrupt leave or your presence here."

Ichigo didn't even get a chance to agree as the Headmaster simply walked out of the office. Groaning, he leaned against the desk, looking up at the long line of portraits. Some of them seemed to be looking at him curiously while others went on with their own business.

"So… anyone here willing to tell me if it's just me, or the whole world seems to be going insane?"

Ichigo took a second to mentally reprimand himself for actually trying to talk to some goddamn _paintings._

"It is just as mystery to us as it is a mystery to you," an old wizard with black bangs answered him stoically.

Oh, and now they were actually responding.

"I don't suppose you are a Slytherin, are you?" the other wizard, the one with dark eyes and a pointed beard said… the one that had startled him a couple of minutes ago.

"Why do you always ask that question to any student whose affiance we cannot see, Phineas?"

"Please, Everard, am I not allowed to be curious? So, are you a Slytherin or not, boy?"

Ichigo debated on answering with a 'who are you calling a boy?', but somehow, arguing with a _portrait_ just felt stupid. As if he'd actually be talking to imaginary friends or something and he didn't do that kind of stuff. In the end, he settled for, "Err… no."

"Hm… It has to be Gryffindor then," the old man sighed.

"How'd you know?" Ichigo grumbled sarcastically.

"Such misfortune," the wizard murmured, completely ignoring his question. "And you looked like you were a smart one, too."

"What? Are you suggesting I'm stupid now?" Ichigo snapped.

"More brawn than brain, that is what I am suggesting," the wizard sighed, somewhat disappointedly. "And you just seem to be confirming it."

Ichigo's fists clutched. "What the—? And then old people complain about the young being rude? Exactly how is this polite of you?"

"Well, I did put him there for a reason," a voice said.

It took Ichigo a little bit longer to realize it came from the Sorting Hat which was resting at the top of a shelf.

"But now that I think of it, Hufflepuff probably wouldn't have been that bad of an idea, either."

"Hufflepuff? _Him_? Do you see now, Everard, what I have been trying to tell you for years? Of course he Sorts the students according to his moods! I myself would never place this one in Hufflepuff! Did you not hear the way he speaks? Such disrespect!" one of the witches spoke.

"Oh, but I do not," the Sorting Hat sang amusedly. "This one in particular had been hard to place. Undying loyalty to his friends and the courage to stand up to basically anything? Of course, I have ultimately decided Gryffindor. I believe he is precisely what we needed to unite the houses once again."

"Such foolishness—"

"Oh, but think about it, Dylis," the Hat persisted. "A person like him is perfect. As I have previously put his friend in Hufflepuff, naturally I have created a type of a bond between the two houses as these two are not impaled with prejudice. Then you get to look at Ravenclaws that always have been close to the Hufflepuffs – what stops them from being close to the Gryffindors as well if an outside factor is pushing it? Then we get Slytherin, which does not seem to be well-liked amongst the students as of late. But here we have a student who does not understand the house rivalry, and even more so, does not care. If he sets his mind into it, the house rivalry may as well no longer exist."

At this, most of the portraits took several seconds just to stare at Ichigo. Somehow, that didn't leave him feeling comfortable.

"So what?" he asked, glaring at the Hat. "Now you're expecting me to fix your problems, too? Well, here's the news for you – I won't. What the hell is up with everybody thinking I'm their problem solver? I have my own life to handle, thank you very much."

"Well, nobody—" but whatever the Hat had been trying to say was interrupted as Dumbledore walked into the room once again. Consequently, the rest of the group no longer just stared at Ichigo, either.

"Ah, I see you've been having fun," the old wizard noted.

"God no," Ichigo mumbled.

"I would appreciate it if none of what was heard and said tonight left this room," Dumbledore said, the slightly amused tune abandoning his voice.

"It's not like I was going to put it on a billboard or anything… What's going on with Potter and Weasley isn't really my business, either. I just came to tell you that Hinamori's gone back to Seireitei and that that friend of yours went along."

"My friend, eh…" A distantly sad smile crossed over the Headmaster's face. "I see. Should I be expecting Miss Hinamori to return for the next term, or…?"

"I don't know," Ichigo admitted. "She doesn't know, either, but she'll probably be back. I leave it to you to think of an excuse for other teachers."

Dumbledore nodded, but he was looking at Ichigo in such an odd way that Ichigo got a distinctly uneasy feeling that he was being read like a book.

"And as for you, Mr. Kurosaki? Should I be expecting you for the next term?"

Ichigo looked down at his feet. Half an hour ago, answering that would be just too simple. But now…

His fists clenched.

"I don't know."

By the time Ichigo returned to the Gryffindor Tower, there was nobody awake. Hinamori and Ariana were long gone from his senses, probably already in Seireitei.

Even an hour after settling in his bed, he couldn't fall asleep.

_Why…? That Ganju's shortcut… Where did all that power come from? _And why had he been feeling as if he'd been drowning in his own power?

_Because that one's probably true, duh…_

The morning, however, did not bring any answers. When he got to the Great Hall for breakfast, the school was in an uproar. Students wanted to know how come that the Weasleys, Harry and Hinamori got their chance to go home earlier and while some others supplied information about Ron's father having an accident, it was not about to remove the curiosity. Especially not when people started questioning why Hinamori was gone in the first place as she wasn't even _that_ close with either Potter or the Weasleys.

That was later explained as 'she can only use Muggle transportation to go home so we had to let her leave early'. Not many bought that – and especially not Susan and Hannah who seemed to have hung out with Hinamori the most. The moment Ichigo had sat down at the Gryffindor table with Neville for breakfast, the girls had come asking questions.

"Where is Momo?"

They were pretty blunt about it, too.

"Home… and if not yet, then at least half-way there," Ichigo grumbled.

The two exchanged a look.

"Don't lie," Hannah said snappishly. "We would've known if she'd just gone home. She would have told us. Where is Momo and what is going on?"

"How the hell should I know?" Ichigo snapped at them. "I heard it five minutes ago just like you did."

"Well fine, but you don't have to be so rude about it."

He didn't say anything as they walked away, but he was pretty sure they hadn't given up yet. Then he noticed Neville looking at him somewhat apprehensively.

"What?"

"Nothing," Neville said immediately and looked away. "Just… Momo leaving… does that have anything to do with that girl who got injured in November?"

Ichigo, to his credit, did not look surprised with the question at all. He'd been half-expecting it anyway, but he was a bit startled with just how calmly he answered.

"A little, yeah…"

Neville, however, was shocked that he got a response. "Really? So, if I ask what really happened back then, are you going to answer me?"

"What happened…? I don't _know_ what happened," he said quietly. "I just know _somebody_ thought it was a good idea, trying to cut Rukia in half… then said it wasn't even the point."

Neville wasn't a fool. He knew Ichigo wasn't happy with either the question or what had happened, so he decided it would be really stupid to press for answers about why would that friend of his even be at Hogwarts. Other questions, however, were still bugging him.

"And why wasn't I able to remember any of it for a whole day?"

Ichigo shrugged. "You weren't even supposed to know it happened."

"So why are you answering my questions now, if I'm really not supposed to know?"

"It's not like you'd quit asking if I refused to tell you," Ichigo told him. "Just wondering, though… why wait? For over a month you knew something had happened… Why'd you wait?"

Neville sighed, eyes on his meal. "Just… didn't want to have a row with you over something what looked like it wasn't one of your favorite moments."

"I… see… Thanks, Neville."

Neville smiled sheepishly. "So… um… is there still a place I can stay at during the holidays?"

Ichigo looked at him and smirked. "Yeah. A warning, though. You probably aren't going to like it. That place is more of an asylum than even Hogwarts."

"Hmm… I think I can take it. So… why does Momo keep running around the school with a sword?"

"Isn't that something you should be asking her, not me?"

"She's not here. And besides, it _does_ look like you know the answer…"

"Say, when exactly does the train leave? I still have to get my stuff packed."

"Eleven o'clock. Hey, wait! Where are you going…? Wait, Ichigo! You didn't answer my question!"

* * *

"That means that if I really want to cut the connection, I can do it… isn't that so?" Parvati said, feeling somewhat disappointed.

"Oh, yes, of course you can, my dear, but I wouldn't advise it myself. If done incorrectly, you risk the ability to be able to see anything at all with your Inner Eye," Professor Trelawney said dramatically.

"But it's not like I see anything either way," Parvati mumbled. _Except Ichigo in all his monstrous glory…_

"Well, you _have_ limited your Inner Eye on one person and one person only. Naturally, those connections disappear on their own after a while, but that is when experienced Seers do it. From what you've said, you have managed to do it exactly as you should have, but…"

"But I'm still just a beginner," Parvati finished. "Yes, I understand. And if I'm not careful about cutting it, I may actually cloud my Inner Eye forever. I see. Thank you, Professor Trelawney."

"You are most welcome, my child. And do watch out for the strangers coming from the land of the dead. Always clad in shadows and surrounded by mystery, they capture a human's heart even faster than a love potion and take them to Death. Run along now, my dear, the Hogwarts Express is leaving in a couple of minutes!"

Had she not been in a hurry about it, Parvati would have probably asked what she meant with the 'land of the dead' and 'take them to Death', but as it was, the train would leave without her and she really _couldn't _afford for that to happen. Lavender would chop her head off.

_Good thing she hadn't done it when I first told her about this whole thing…_

But after the initial rant, Lavender really rose up to the best-friend standard. Well, aside from the whole, 'if you try to hide something like this from me again, I'll hex you' part. And with all the spells they'd learned with the DA for the past months… Well, Parvati was pretty sure she didn't want a duel with her best friend.

She settled in a compartment with Lavender and two other Gryffindor girls from fourth year, but she didn't participate in their conversation about Anthony Goldstein from Ravenclaw and how handsome he seemed to be. For the first hour of the ride, she was just staring through the window towards the snowy valleys, trying to break it within.

_Cut the connection, or not cut the connection…_ it was driving her insane. She'd had the recurring dream about Ichigo actually becoming a _monster_ after the initial terrifying dream and it was haunting her, but that had to have _some_ meaning to it. Wizards couldn't just become monsters out of nowhere, which only meant that would happen in the future, but the problem was, Ichigo looked _younger_. Which in turn meant that he'd already become that thing and that thought terrified her even more.

_I guess there's really nothing I can do but talk to him about it. Warn him if he doesn't have an idea, or just… confirm it to myself if he does. Of course, he doesn't believe in any of this so he'd probably laugh…_

That was just becoming ridiculous. Her _thoughts_ were becoming ridiculous. For the four months Ichigo had spent at Hogwarts, Parvati had never once seen him _smile,_ let alone laugh. He got annoyed, he frowned, he complained, he grimaced and he even smirked a few times, but she'd never seen a smile. Honestly, she couldn't really bring herself to be surprised.

"I'll be right back," she told the others in the compartment as she just walked out, closing the door behind her. While Lavender would probably find out what she was about to do later on, none of the others would.

She found him about six compartments away from hers – the last one in the last cart. He was sitting there with Neville and Hermione, obviously in a middle of an argument of sorts.

"Well if you've really been in a hurry, why take the train?" he was saying.

"I wanted to take the Knight Bus, but I also had to—"

"Hi, Ichigo," Parvati said, not at all keen to know what Hermione Granger had to do.

He looked up at her, as though surprised she was even there. "Hey."

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah, su—"

"Alone."

For a second he looked like he wanted to protest, but Parvati made sure she smirked convincingly. Maybe he'd get an impression she wanted another favor or something, she had been asking for those a _lot_…

She actually wanted to laugh how dumbfounded he looked at the moment. While a knowing look passed on between Neville and Hermione, he didn't seem to have caught wind of anything. And Parvati knew how this would look to an outsider, but it only made her want to laugh even more.

He followed her out in the corridor, at least remembering to close the door behind him.

"Err, so… what do you want?"

He did look somewhat apprehensive, now that she thought of it. Perhaps even a little bit anxious. Now why would he look that way? _I guess it's not really the time for teasing him. _She sighed, pressing her nose to the window. It was still snowing and she really couldn't see much, but it was still somewhat nice to see the little that she could covered in white.

"I know you don't believe in these things, but listen to what I have to say, please," she said. "While I can't claim that all prophecies are real and completely accurate, I can freely state that yes, the ability to, you know, just see things… well, it exists."

"Huh. And you're telling me this… why?"

She actually turned to look at him; standing so that he was facing the window as well, but his arms were crossed and he didn't really look interested into listening to her.

"I'm telling you this because I can do it," she said. "I can see things I otherwise should _not_ be able to see. Future, past, present… I don't know. I think it's the past, but don't understand it. But… I know it's real. I don't think my mind would be able to come up with a version of you with black sclera and yellow pupils. And then your hair grows, a hole appears in your chest there's an awful pointy mask covering your face. It's _creepy_. That shouldn't even be possible."

Parvati would honestly love to say that the look on his face was not heartbreaking. His eyes were wide, looking at her as if she'd just told him his whole family is gone, but in his eyes there is something… something she didn't understand. It was either sorrow mixed with regret, but also mixed with something entirely different that she couldn't possibly define. It even resembled… what? Maybe wistfulness? But no… she was pretty sure that was not it.

"And then there was also you looking like an absolute monster, complete with a tail. It was creepy, really. Especially because your skin was looking more like big, fat bones with red stripes…" she added in a whisper when he didn't look like he was about to answer her.

No, really, she would honestly love to say it wasn't heartbreaking to see him that way. But it was. For the first time she actually thought it may have been better keeping it to herself.

"Are you… sure about it?" he asked, perhaps too calmly compared to the look on his face.

She didn't say anything. It's not like she needed to. He probably just asked for no reason. It was evident from the look on his face that he trusted her.

"I don't know what that is…" she whispered. "I'm also pretty sure that I don't want to know… Are you all right?"

His fists were clenched tightly and instead of looking at her, he was looking off through the window.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm fine. Don't think too much about it…"

Parvati grit her teeth. "Well, I can't just forget it as though it doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter," he said. "Not anymore."

"But…" she hesitated. "If you say so, I guess," she sighed. "Just… be careful, all right?"

Now he did look at her… and the look on his face was something that maybe, just maybe, she could call a half-smile. Really, it was more like a smirk, but… less ferocity… and much softer. She really wasn't sure what it was because it wasn't a real smile… but it looked like a shadow of one.

She smiled at him.

Because, really, who would think that Ichigo Kurosaki would look that hot when apparently he was just _trying_ to smile?

And then she just gave him a small wave before walking back to her compartment. While the talk hadn't really reassured her, it at least cleared up _something_. And now instead of the monstrous version of him, the smiling one was probably going to stalk her dreams for eternity.

* * *

Ichigo stayed out in the corridor a little while longer, staring out through the window.

"_Do you remember what I said at the beginning of this fight? That what you want to protect is not what I want to protect?"_

"…_Yeah."_

"…_What I wanted to protect was you, Ichigo."_

He ran his hand over his face and through his hair. _They're gone right now… I wonder what they'd… he'd say… if they saw me like this._

But thinking about the past didn't change anything. It didn't change the fact that his powers were gone and that all he had now was some weak Reiatsu and no way to use it yet. It didn't change the fact that there was another monster out there and purely because it was there, because it existed, Rukia had gotten hurt. And she didn't have anything to do with it in the slightest.

_I don't understand… what is the point of fighting for just power? Is this British guy just like Aizen? Wishing for power to stand above the universe? Just what do you get with that? _

He didn't understand and, quite frankly, he didn't want to.

He returned to the compartment shortly after, not really telling anything to Hermione and Neville, just looking through the window. Now that he thought of it, Hinamori was gone and the Shinigami had completely left Britain even before her… How the hell was he going to return to Karakura?

"Uh… Ichigo, is everything all right?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure? You don't look so—"

"It's fine."

"All… right. Then, is it all right if I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"About what happened in November… and now that it turns out Momo is gone—"

Ichigo's groan interrupted her. "What the hell is up with everybody today? Is today the national day of asking bothersome questions or what?"

She paused, somewhat confusedly. "Well, no, but… I would like to know what magic Momo used back then."

"It's called Kido," Ichigo grumbled. "That's all I know."

"You didn't look surprised—"

"I saw her and a bunch of others use it countless times. Satisfied?"

Maybe it was the tone of his voice, or maybe she just learned everything she'd wanted to, but Hermione nodded and spoke no other word on the subject. Neville remained silent as well.

"Umm… Ichigo, is Parvati all right?"

"Huh?" Ichigo looked at Hermione somewhat confusedly. "Why wouldn't she be?"

Hermione just shook her head. "Never mind. I-I'm still a prefect so I have to go through the train. I'll see the two of you later."

Neville sighed as she shut the compartment door behind her. "Does anyone even care? I sure don't see Malfoy or even Hannah doing their duties all the time."

"I'm more worried about how the hell I'm going to get home."

"Hmm… Didn't you already have something in plan?"

"No."

"Then how about muggle transportation?"

"Hmm… Not a bad idea… Jii-san did provide me with money. Hmm… Urahara-san may also remember to provide that effing Portkey thing. I'd still rather get on a plain than use that thing… even if it is _faster_."

"Now that I think of it, how am I going to get to Karakura? I mean, I'll probably be coming on twenty-seventh and all… so, any ideas?"

"Plane?" Ichigo offered. "Urahara can probably get you the ride back, but to get there anything is better than a portkey, _trust_ me."

"Hmm… but international Portkeys sound a bit better, you know? Like you said, they're faster."

"If you like spinning like hell for god knows how long then be my guest," Ichigo grumbled. "I'm getting on a plane no matter what anyone else says."

Neville sighed. "You'd know better, I suppose."

* * *

Harry ran a hand through his hair, probably making it even messier now and it was messy enough as it is. He was in that same old room he'd been in during the summer and once again he was sharing it with Ron, but this time he was less than happy. The last time he'd had the right to be angry at everyone for keeping him in dark about the Order of the Phoenix, but now… Now he was the one apparently being possessed by _Voldemort_ and apparently was not allowed (curtsey of Dumbledore) to leave the Grimmauld place. And if that was not enough to drive him insane, pictures of a girl covered in blood that seemed to be invading his mind even when he was awake certainly were.

And why did _Ron_ appear to know about that even more than Harry? He'd wanted to ask Ron about it, and what that had to do with Ichigo and Momo, but then they went to St. Mungo's and eavesdropped on the adults… well, after that Harry wasn't quite willing to look any of his friends in the eyes. Mostly because, if Voldemort really was possessing him, he would be able to do the same. He would see Ron, Sirius, Ginny, Fred, George, Lupin and even the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and Harry would_ never_ allow that. He wasn't about to let anyone get hurt because he, Harry, could be possessed so easily.

In other words, it meant he was going to barricade himself in the room and he was not going to let anyone inside.

But just about a second after he made that decision, Ron strolled inside.

"Aren't you going to go down for supper?" he asked.

"Not hungry."

"I guess I can understand it a little… My appetite's a bit down, too."

Harry actually turned over in his bed to stare at Ron. "_Your_ appetite is down?"

"Hey, at least I ate something! Just… not as much as I normally do…"

He sat down on his bed somewhat sullenly and looked at Harry. Harry looked back. They stayed that way for short time and Harry could see that something greatly bothered his friend, but he wasn't really sure how to ask. But then Ron bowed his head and spoke in low voice.

"You think what that woman said is true?"

"What?"

"That weirdly dressed girl in Dumbledore's office. She said Ichigo and Momo modified our memories. Do you think it's really true?"

Harry refrained from telling Ron that if he remembered right, the girl had been wearing the standard Muggle Guard uniform, instead focusing on the other part of the statement. "I… I don't know. It could be, I suppose."

"I've talked to both Neville and Hermione about it and—well, they'd probably agree," Ron said suddenly. "Not about what that girl said but that there is something going on. Hermione doesn't remember very well what happened when Hagrid returned, but Neville does and so do I… And then there was that one time Momo assaulted me with a smoke-creating thingy after I saw her with a sword… I really, really want some answers now."

"Why don't I remember anything?" Harry asked. "Everything you've said about Momo doing some weird magic and the girl who got injured… I know it's happened. I don't know how, but I know it has. But other than that girl, I can't remember _anything_. Why am I the only one who can't remember?"

"I don't know, mate… Maybe she hit you first so it Confunded you more than others."

"It didn't Confund me. She didn't cast a spell, I'm sure of it."

"I don't know, mate… I just want to know _why. _Think we could research it once we get back to Hogwarts?"

"I… don't see why not. It wouldn't hurt to ask Ichigo about it, either. I always thought he couldn't lie even to save his life."

"… I'm really starting to dislike Ichigo right now."

"Yeah. I know exactly how you feel."

* * *

Ginjo Kugo was at a loss.

Okay, maybe that was a bit exaggerating, but it didn't change the fact that he sometimes had difficulties trying to think of a next step in his plans, which were mostly designed in such a way that they didn't have all the details worked out. Nor all of the factors, either.

Kurosaki Ichigo had apparently returned from Great Britain just a little over a day ago.

Long before that, just about the time when he'd first met her, Ginjo had made sure that Kurosaki Karin was under Tsukishima's control, but not until really necessary. So no, it was not through Karin that he learned of Kurosaki Ichigo's return.

It was through Sado Yasutora.

Ever since the whole 'Kurosaki's leaving Karakura' thing happened _months_ ago, Ginjo really thought his plans were screwed. Hell, they were risky enough as it was, but if Ichigo really left Karakura for good…

So, instead of despairing, he confirmed it by talking to his little sister. It was quite useful, yes, but not enough. She couldn't say for sure when he was coming back, and on the other hand, she didn't even look willing to share the information. Ginjo didn't push. There's was no point in it, as it would just make the girl distrust him even more. So a couple of weeks later, he made sure to recruit Sado.

From the big guy he learned his plans were all basically useless, now that it turned out that Gotei Thirteen was actually in the process of restoring Kurosaki's powers. However, from Sado he also learned that if pushed in the right direction, Kurosaki could still become a great asset in his move against the Shinigami.

Well, as long as he didn't return with the Shinigami powers, that is.

At least that plan seemed to working out so far. Kurosaki was back in Karakura, with high enough Reiatsu but no way to use it. Basically, that was everything Ginjo needed. Well, it would have been better that Gotei hadn't done anything about him at all, but he couldn't _really_ rely on just that, so he had to plan accordingly.

And that's where the problems began to form. Just asking Kurosaki to join would be practically useless, as he probably wouldn't do it. Also, just about two hours ago he proved he could actually manhandle a Hollow and keep it down for as long as it took a Shinigami to show up – and the Shinigami resident of Karakura at the moment wasn't exactly a capable one.

In other words, that meant that Kurosaki was not harmless at all and that he probably wouldn't need Ginjo's help. He wouldn't care about getting Fullbring because he could handle whatever threatens him and he was on his way to get his powers back, anyway.

Well, unless _something_ happened to change his mind.

That something was exactly what Ginjo couldn't yet figure out. Kurosaki was an easy guy to read. Attack his family or friends or basically just _anyone_ in his presence and he'd jump in immediately. That was just the sort of person he was. Easy to read, easy to manipulate. Except, right now, the external factors made that just a little bit more difficult.

He smirked at Tsukishima, who was sitting at the other corner of the room. "Say, if you could activate your Fullbring on Karin today, that would be good."

"Oh, so you've got a plan already?" asked Tsukishima, his eyes not moving from the book.

"Yep. We haven't had much time to investigate everything about Kurosaki, so we have to fix that part. I'll gather the others and here is what you are going to do…"

Yes. If considered carefully, maybe Kurosaki could be used efficiently.

Even better, he may _actually _be willing to help.

* * *

"This is a wand? Wooow! It looks so cool, Onii-chan! And you can really do magic with it?"

Ichigo groaned inwardly. Next time, he would remember not to show Yuzu something that he _knew_ would interest her greatly. She was excitedly waving it around, all the while staring at the wooden stick as if it was made of diamond.

"Yeah," Ichigo said, scratching the back of his head. "Just be careful with it, okay? We don't want an—"

Several red, flashy sparks flew out of the tip of the wand. Several other things happened at the same time. First, Yuzu screamed. Second, she dropped the wand. Third, the sparks landed on the corner of his bed covers and they promptly burst into fire. Yuzu screamed again.

Ichigo just palmed his face. "Great… And I just got back yesterday…"

"Quickly, Onii-chan! We have to light out the fire!"

Ichigo just let Yuzu run downstairs to get a fire extinguisher. He probably wouldn't be of much help, anyway. Hopefully she'd just be fast enough to come back before his whole bed turned into a blazing inferno.

Five minutes later, the fire was out, Ichigo's covers were destroyed and he was pretty sure his room would never ever look the same as before. And while Yuzu ran around, trying to fix the mess she'd created, Ichigo just sat at his chair, annoyed.

_Great. Now it turns out that magic runs in the family… just what I needed. _

He picked up his wand, glaring at it. Remembering the time he bought it, he was just glad that his room hadn't been blown to smithereens As for Yuzu apparently being able to do magic… well, he wasn't sending her to Hogwarts, that's for sure.

Ichigo's return to Karakura hadn't been anything really flashy. Yuzu and his dad had whined because he had actually taken the plane instead of Urahara's Portkey, but he'd told them they could just go ahead and use the Portkey if they thought so highly of it. Goat Chin actually looked like he wanted to. Yuzu pretty much gave up after that. Karin had at least had some sense and from her he'd gotten a 'Good to see you back, Ichi-nii'. During the first day of his return, he'd also managed to see Chad, Inoue and Tatsuki. All in all, it was good to be back.

As for the day two… well, he didn't have many things in plan. Maybe later he'd go talk to Urahara to see if he had any news about Rukia's condition – and about the whole thing regarding Avalon in the first place, but while curious, he wasn't all that much in a hurry. Maybe it was just because he'd only just returned home, but he wanted to sit back and relax a little. It'd been long four months and he hadn't exactly been sitting around and doing nothing.

That proved to be an excellent thing later on that day, as a Hollow showed up near his house. Much to his chagrin, Ichigo still sucked with sensing Reiatsu in general so he'd only noticed it when it started roaring.

After that, handling it had been pretty easy. The most boring part was actually waiting for Imoyama-san to show up and take care of the thing. Ichigo wasn't stupid. He maybe could have destroyed it, but he had no idea what happened to the Hollows that were killed by neither Shinigami nor a Quincy. He made a mental note to ask Urahara about it, one day.

"So have you made any friends at Hogwarts, Onii-chan?" Yuzu asked excitedly as she served the dinner. She'd been asking questions like that for most of the day.

"A couple, yeah. There's Neville, Parvati, Hermione…" he sighed. "Guess Potter and Weasley could count, too."

"Wow! You've made a lot of friends!"

"Hmm… I'll be disappointed if none of those listed is actually a well-endowed beauty," Isshin said with a sneaky look towards his son.

"What the hell, you perverted old freak? Don't you have anything else to think about?"

Karin and Yuzu just watched the exchange silently.

"I can't believe I'm going to say it, but I missed this, Karin-chan. House felt really empty without Onii-chan around."

"Well, I definitely didn't miss that," Karin said as Ichigo slammed a fist in his dad's face over his bowl pf curry and the old man started whining once again.

"Oh, now that I remember, Neville should be arriving in a few days," Ichigo said suddenly as he calmly sat back. "He seemed like he really wanted to spend the holidays away from home so I invited him over."

"Oh! So cool! How's he like?" Yuzu beamed.

"Err… he's okay."

That was where discussion pretty much left off, as Ichigo focused on finishing his dinner instead of answering. He was pretty clueless how he'd answer that question, anyway.

* * *

"And you are absolutely sure that Kurosaki is going to agree to that idea?" Uryu asked, somewhat skeptically. As much of an optimistic and generally happy girl that Inoue Orihime was, she still had a tendency of coming up with weirdest possible ideas and not all of them possible to be executed.

This one precisely could be listed as one of those.

"Well, I know he won't be too happy about it, but it's the thought that counts, isn't it, Ishida-kun? He must've missed all of us and just won't speak about it because that's how he is! Shouldn't we try and make it easier?"

Uryu was just glad that he was talking on the phone with her. If she'd seen the look on his face, she probably would have forced him to smile. She'd been doing that a lot lately.

"But organizing a party at Kurosaki's place? Shouldn't you have asked him about it first?" he said.

"Tatsuki-chan says that if he doesn't agree, she'll make him!"

"That's hardly a good solution. The two of them would probably get into a fight! Say, when were you planning for this party to happen?"

"Well, I was thinking in about an hour or so. Tatsuki-chan and I are heading out to the bakers in a few minutes and we thought about talking to Kurosaki-kun just before then. It's on our way, anyways."

"An hour? Are you crazy? Please don't tell me you didn't invite other people already…"

From the other side of the line he heard nervous chuckling. Uryu barely resisted the urge to palm his face _hard._

"Kurosaki is not going to like this."

"Are you going to come, Ishida-kun?"

"Of course. I wouldn't miss a chance to see the flabbergasted look on Kurosaki's face for anything," he responded, somewhat sarcastically. "Tell you what, I'm heading over that part of the town in a couple of minutes anyway, so I should arrive to Kurosaki's place soon enough."

"Oh, yay! Thanks, Ishida-kun! See you soon!"

She just hung up after that. Uryu sighed. Well, Kurosaki's place wasn't really on his way… but oh well.

It took him a little over half an hour to finish everything he had to do and now he could head over to Kurosaki's place. Well, no, actually. There was one other thing he needed to do before heading there.

Focusing, Uryu tried to identify the Reiatsu that he'd registered sometime earlier, but it wasn't anything he had sensed before. It was also vastly different from any other type of Reiatsu he'd ever felt so far that it was almost frustrating. Also, it was close. It way very close to him and had been for a while already.

Uryu looked around, trying to look for the source, but there was only a pair of normal humans passing by him. Now he was highly on alert.

_Could this be what Urahara-san had been talking about when he'd mentioned that now that Kurosaki's back, we should be expecting some oddities?_

Uryu didn't know – and he sure as hell didn't like it.

He proceeded on his way, trying not to miss anything he passed by. Not a single person, word or a dash of wind, but there was nothing suspicious he could find.

_No, wait—there!_

Somebody was actually walking on the rooftop?

Making sure nobody was around to see it, Uryu jumped and, using Hirenkyaku, headed over for the roof. But by the time he got there, the stranger with the odd Reiatsu was already jumping over to the other roof.

_How did he—? Wait, is he trying to lure me into a trap?_

Uryu followed him, but made sure that he wouldn't miss anything that could possibly come in from the side. In the end, it was the only thing that had saved him from an oncoming slash that did not have anything to do with the person he was following.

Uryu used Hirenkyaku to draw back and look at his attacker, but the man he had been following was now holding a sword as well and the only thing that stopped Ishida from being sliced in half was his quick reaction and release of the Spirit Bow.

"You're going down, Quincy!"

And as Uryu slowly started turning his head towards the attacker number two, he felt the splitting pain as a sword slashed him from the front. Unable to hold the grip on the Spirit Particles underneath his feet, he crumbled down on the ground, his back hitting against asphalt hard.

The last thing he saw, only blurrily as his glasses seemed to be gone – and really, the image was very much just white, too – was a tall man with a broadsword held over his shoulders, and the malicious grin he'd be able to discern even without his spectacles.

* * *

Well, that's about it for now. So yes, we're entering the Fullbring Arc... sort of. At this rate, it's probably going to last another few chapters and that's about it. Now, I have a little rant coming so anyone who is not interested is free to skip it and leave a review... or not.

Anyway, here we go.

Seriously, J. K. Rowling, what the hell? OotP is one of the more interesting books and all that, but just what the hell? Sure, Voldemort didn't really do anything so as not to reveal that he's back yet, and he's a smart bastard, but now that I think about it, spending almost a whole freakin' year gathering other subordinates and just manipulating Harry into going to the Ministry to pick up an orb he could have taken even more stealthily than a bunch of schoolkids... Just WHAT? I don't know about anyone else, but I don't like that very much. And the whole thing's just an intro into the whole lot of problems an author faces when trying to write Bleach/HP crossover. Sure, one can easily put the two worlds together and not even balancing power levels is that difficult, but time is a problem. In Bleach, you have a whole freakin' war end in less than six months and that's about 400 chapters or something, yes, but the point is, things happen quickly. Sure the story shows a lot of things happened even a century before the main story, but that's not the point. In Bleach, things are resolved rather quickly when you look at it In-Universe. Characters don't wait and they take first opportunity given or just basically, you don't get _months_ of inaction as you do in HP. I find this to be the biggest problem when writing this story. I know what a character is going to do, how the other is going to react and what the hell is going to happen next, I just don't have a solid timeline for all that because in HP things happen way too slow. One may be able to drag the whole plot to fit in with ten months the school year lasts, but not Bleach characters. They don't have any respect for stuff like that.

So yeah, my point?

You can wave a goodbye to good old OotP canon starting the second term. I don't know about others, but I do have a way to incorporate Voldie into the story while in the middle of the school year. So... that probably means that there won't be any 'rescue Sirius from Voldemort' or just generally wrecking the Ministry... or not.

Anyways, I bid you all good night.


	16. Chapter 15: Not going as planned

Chapter 15: Not going as planned

"YAY! Kurosaki-kun is making a party and inviting everyone over!"

"No, I am _not_! Just how the hell did you even rope me up into this stuff, anyway, Inoue?"

"Eh? But didn't you miss everyone? You were gone for so long! Of course I had to go ahead and call everyone to gather! Well, I really first just called Tatsuki-chan, Sado-kun and Ishida-kun, but then Asano-kun and Kojima-kun also heard about it – and then Chizuru-chan said she wanted to come as well! Then Afro-san also found out and said he'd wanted to see face-to-face the one who'd been stealing his job and then… I kind of lost track how many people wanted to come… ehehehehe…"

"You know what? Next time just don't tell me, all right?"

"Eh? If you mind, we could also party at my place. Sure, it's really not that big, but there would be enough space for everyone. I even invited Abarai-kun and Kuchiki-san, but it seems Kuchiki-san is still recovering from her last mission and Abarai-kun also mentioned something about some meetings so I didn't push. I thought about checking in with Urahara-san to see if they needed any medical assistance, but he said it was quite all right."

"Oh, so Rukia's still down?"

"Should be back on her feet real soon, Abarai-kun told me!"

"There, there, take it easy, Hime," Tatsuki said, ruffling her hair. "You've done enough as it is. Ichigo is going to be the jerk if he refuses the offer."

"Because I don't want the whole lot of you to crash into my place? My room's still recovering from Yuzu's enthusiasm. All of you would blow the house in pieces," Ichigo said dryly.

"You've just returned and you're already behaving like an ungrateful bastard, Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled.

"It's not _my_ fault you were organizing chaos right behind my back! Besides, if you've already invited everyone, why are there only the two of you here?" Ichigo grumbled, gesturing behind at his house.

"Oh… I'm pretty sure Kojima-kun and Asano-kun said they'll be coming by shortly." Inoue flashed him a brilliant smile.

Ichigo actually had to pull away a little. Somehow, Inoue seemed a lot more relaxed than the last time he'd seen her. It was rather… disconcerting. Sure, her enthusiasm was all good and well, but somehow, Ichigo felt it was really out of place. Maybe because he'd been keeping away from her all those months before leaving to Hogwarts, but something about it just… bugged him.

"Well do me a favor and give them a call. Tell them not to come over. Neville should be here in a couple of hours and I told him I'd pick him up on the airport. The ride there takes at least about an hour and I've got about thirty minutes before the train leaves."

"Party pooper," Inoue pouted, but then quickly grinned. "And what do you say if we just move the party for tomorrow, then? Or maybe even for the New Year's Eve? You don't look like you have any plans."

Ichigo sighed. "Can't we just forget about the damn party?"

"Aww… but that way not everyone will get to see Kurosaki-kun before he leaves again."

"I'll make sure to see whoever I _want_ to see," Ichigo mumbled. "Besides, I've seen Ishida and Chad yesterday and you and Tatsuki are here _right now_. And what the hell does Chizuru of all people want from me?"

"To be honest, I'm pretty sure that's just her trying to assault Orihime. Why would anyone want anything from you?"

"Geez, thanks a lot, Tatsuki. I've gotta go or I'll be late. See you guys later!"

And with a lazy wave, Ichigo ran off.

* * *

The two girls, who had previously decided to give him a visit but actually had the luck to meet him in his street, watched him leave. Orihime smiled softly as she lost the sight of the orange hair as he turned, heading towards the train station.

"Kurosaki-kun doesn't look like he'd changed much, does he?" she said, her face softening.

"No… no he doesn't," Tatsuki agreed.

"But that's just on the outside, isn't it? On the inside… on the inside, he's now more like a person he used to be. Like back when he was a Shinigami. He looks more alive than what I have seen him for a really long time."

"It's been about a year since he lost his powers, hasn't it?" Tatsuki said quietly.

"Yes," Orihime whispered, lowering her head. "It's… a really long time. I just hope he gets his powers back soon. I… don't want to see his face like that… I don't want to see it ever again."

Tatsuki nodded, somewhat thoughtfully. Then she shook her head and grinned. "Come on, since Ichigo's gone, race you to the baker's!"

"Not fair, Tatsuki-chan! Wait for me!"

Orihime sprinted after her. They had only turned one corner before she started slowing down and then completely stopped, her eyes widening.

"Orihime?" Tatsuki called her.

The other girl's fists clenched and she breathed quickly. The Reiatsu… "Oh no, Ishida-kun…"

"Orihime, what's—?"

But Tatsuki didn't even get to finish the question before Orihime started running much faster, in the opposite direction of where they were previously heading.

"Orihime, wait!"

And without any better idea of what to do, Tatsuki ran after her. They didn't run for long, just a couple of blocks. Tatsuki thought it was just cosmically unfair how many people there were in the street. Just what was the crowd about?

But then they emerged into a bit more peaceful part and the sight before them left the girls feeling partly shocked, partly horrified.

"Ishida-kun!"

Orihime knelt next to the prone body of her classmate, her hands an inch from the large, bleeding cut in his torso. "Shun'o, Aya—"

"Don't!" Tatsuki yelled.

"Tatsuki-chan…?" Orihime looked up at her best friend in confusion, but she got the answer to her unasked question soon enough. Other people also noticed what happened and were gathering around.

"Somebody call the ambulance!" Tatsuki yelled at them before she approached Orihime and Ishida, her hands shaking.

"Thanks, Tatsuki-chan," Orihime whispered.

"Don't mention it," Tatsuki said. "Do you have any idea what could have happened?"

"N-no… Urahara-san only warned us to be careful because now that Kurosaki-kun is back, some people were going to take notice of it… but that was it," Orihime said. She looked at Ishida, her eyes almost tearful. "Don't worry, Ishida-kun. I'll take care of you."

She didn't get to follow through on her words immediately, but she made sure to get a sense of the Reiatsu that had caused those wounds. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Yet something about it was familiar.

"Can we come along as well?" she asked to the man driving the ambulance vehicle. "Ishida-kun is our classmate. We can't just go home after seeing something like this. Please."

They didn't agree, but not one person said anything when girls entered the van anyway.

"The wound is deep. Whatever caused this was sharp enough to damage one of the ribs and it has cut through several important arteries! Hurry up and give me something to stop the bleeding otherwise he'll bleed to death!"

Orihime's fists clenched. _Don't worry, Ishida-kun. With the first chance I get, I'm definitely going to heal you._

* * *

"Wait, are you telling me that your friends just decided to throw a party at your house and they didn't ask you about it until the last minute?" Neville asked, struggling against the urge to laugh.

"This is absolutely the last time I'm telling you anything serious," Ichigo said.

"Well, this isn't serious. The serious topic would be… hmm… homework? I don't know. Maybe discussing the news on the TV… or just talking about how you intend to help me understand Japanese. So far I only know _numbers_! And it took me _days_ to memorize how it goes. I still can't count for over one hundred."

"Then I'll just get the others to speak English or something," Ichigo told him as they crossed over the river, finally getting closer to his place. He was having a bad feeling he simply couldn't shake off. "I know dad's probably got no clue, but Karin and Yuzu know something. In case you meet Inoue and Ishida, both of them are probably even better at it than I am. Sure, languages aren't Tatsuki's forte, but I think she understands something and as for Chad… well, he used to live in Mexico…"

"I wasn't aware people spoke English in Mexico…" Neville pointed out.

"Damn it, that's not even the point! Argh, never mind. Chad's grades are also better than mine so it isn't a problem. We'll think of something."

"Well, seeing as you've said—ow!" Neville rubbed his shoulder, barely preventing himself from falling down. It was so cold outside that the snow that had been falling for the past couple of hours (most of it had melted when it first started) was now far too slippery for his liking.

The stranger turned, somewhat confusedly (_Heh, with those muscles, I bet he never even felt it,_ Neville mused) and when he saw Neville, he just blinked.

"Oh, sorry there, kid."

Ichigo sighed as he realized Neville probably had no idea what the tall guy just said, seeing as he was looking awfully confused.

But he at least seemed to have figured out as he nodded briefly, still rubbing his shoulder.

The stranger turned to leave (and Ichigo pretty much did the same), when he seemingly changed his mind and turned back. "Wait a second! You're Kurosaki, aren't you?"

Ichigo turned to glare at the stranger. Now when he thought of it, this one had some really weird Reiatsu.

"Do I know you?" he asked, not bothering to keep his voice from turning somewhat hostile. Strangers talking to him in the street usually never went well, anyway. Especially not at night.

"Eh, no," the other guy said, scratching the back of his head. "But I know you."

"I can see that. So, are you going to tell me what you want already?"

"Geez, you are as rude as they say. Anyways, I was just going to give you an offer, but if you're gonna be so rude about it, then nothing."

"Whatever," Ichigo grumbled. In English, he added, "Let's go, Neville."

The aforementioned Hogwarts student nodded, sending one rather curious look towards the stranger, before turning to follow Ichigo.

"Wait! Oi, wait! You seriously aren't even going to hear me out about this?"

Ichigo didn't bother to even look at him.

"And why would I do that? It's not like I know who you are to begin with. Further along, I don't care. So whatever you've wanted to say, you might as well keep it to yourself."

"Are you sure about that?" the stranger asked in a voice that one could immediately qualify as creepy.

"Absolutely yes."

"Well, then I've got some news for ya, Kurosaki. You don't look like you've gotten your Shinigami powers yet… what if I can change that?"

Ichigo's head whipped around and his eyes widened. The stranger smirked, throwing a card at him, which Ichigo caught in between his fingers.

"You don't have to agree right away. I'm Ginjo Kugo and my phone number is down at the bottom so, if you're interested, give me a call. See you around."

And as he went on his merry way, Ichigo stared into the given card. _What—who the hell was that guy just now? How does he…? No, he's not one of the Shinigami, his Reiatsu is too different for that. Just… what?_

"Umm… Ichigo, is something the matter?" Neville asked. "Who was that person? Somebody you know?"

Ichigo's fist clenched as he pushed the card in his back pocket. "Nah… don't you worry yourself about it. Just some punk who's got nothing better to do than bother other people. Come on, we're close anyway. Just tell me, how the hell is your luggage going to get here? Your backpack can't really hold _everything. _I mean, even I had issues on the airport… lucky I even had my passport in the first place."

"Uhm… well, Gran told me she's scheduled special delivery… I'm not really sure what she was talking about," Neville admitted.

"Well, as long as it's not Floo powder… Did you tell her that no, my house's not connected to the Network?"

"Come on, Ichigo, that's common sense. I'm pretty sure you can't send something by Floo network over half the world."

"… You'd know better, I guess."

* * *

"Good morning, Hinamori-fukutaichō."

"Oh, hello, Kuchiki-san. I see you've recovered…"

Rukia's hand briefly touched the spot where, underneath the uniform, she knew there was still a thin scar. According to the Fourth Squad, it would take at least another couple days for it to completely disappear, but at least it no long ached.

"I have," she said. "Uh… where is everybody else? I thought all the Vice-Captains were required to come?"

"Oh, that… Well, Unohana-taichō dismissed us earlier. There was no point in holding this meeting when not even the Captains have gotten the necessary information," Hinamori said with a sigh. "Actually, their meeting started a while ago. Abarai-kun was sent to help a team that was out in Rukongai's twentieth district so he asked me to stay behind and let you know."

"I see… but I have been out for a long time. Could you please tell me what is going on? Renji had mentioned something, but he was very vague with the details."

"Right… well, do you remember what the whole point of going to Hogwarts was?"

Rukia frowned thoughtfully. "Memory modification and making sure no information was left behind. Why? I know that there seemed to be other things happening behind the scenes, but I do not understand quite well."

"That's because of what happened to you," Hinamori said, lowering her head. Seeing as she was practically sitting on the floor with her hands wrapped around her knees, she literally buried her head there, completely hiding it from sight. "The person who attacked you was Lieutenant-General Ray Ariana of Avalon and according to her, former ally of A-Aizen… his former ally had completely taken over Avalon. She's been trying to get in touch with us to call for help for over a year. Right now she's in there, explaining everything to the Captains and they'll later on be making a decision of whether or not we will help… if what she says is true, then the situation is pretty ugly…"

Rukia swallowed a lump in her throat. "That… doesn't sound good. What do you think they will say?"

"They'll probably agree," Hinamori said, lifting up her head and leaning her chin on her knee. "It doesn't do anyone a favor for a sociopath to lead a branch of the afterlife. According to her, that man and those who support him killed over two hundred people in less than two days and over five hundred in a week. Ichigo-kun isn't going to be very happy about it…"

"Ichigo?" Rukia asked. "What does Ichigo have to do with it?"

Hinamori smiled sheepishly. "I guess you could say that he was really upset when he found out that it was Lieutenant-General Ray who hurt you."

"Ichigo, that idiot… Please tell me he didn't cause much trouble for you…"

"Of course he didn't," Hinamori said immediately. "Wait, the meeting is over."

Rukia turned around just in time to see both Kyoraku and her own Captain passing by the other side. They didn't look as if they noticed the girls.

"I'll see you later, Hinamori-san. I have to speak to my Captain."

She sprinted out after a small nod towards Hinamori.

"Ukitake-taichō!"

"Ah… how nice to see you're back on your feet, Rukia-chan."

"Eh… thank you, Kyoraku-taichō," Rukia murmured. "Uh, I wanted to speak with you, Ukitake-taichō, regarding Ichigo…"

"Ah, yes, I remember. Don't worry. You'll be granted a permission to visit Karakura town by tomorrow the latest," Ukitake informed her.

"I… understand. But, that wasn't really what I wanted to ask… Actually, about the whole thing with that man, Ginjo…?"

"Oh, that. Well, for now that is pretty much out of our hands," Ukitake noted solemnly. "Urahara-san is adamant that we do nothing until his Reiatsu is at least that of a fourth seat and besides… in the end, it will be Ichigo-kun's decision whether he will side with the Soul Society."

Rukia looked down at her feet. She hadn't taken it all that well when she'd first heard about the Substitute badge being used to seal off Ichigo's power _and_ spy on him. There were so many things that were just _wrong _about it, but there was as of yet nothing she could do. But if she knew anything about Ichigo…

"Tell me, Kuchiki… what do you think? If in the best case scenario, Ichigo-kun decides to side with us… do you think he would accept a Captain's post?"

Rukia looked up at her Captain in mild-shock. Earlier, she had been under impression that the whole mission in Hogwarts had been about making sure that Ichigo would take over, but there had never been anything confirmed. At most, she'd just heard about the Captains wanting to keep an eye on Ichigo. But to hear that it was really true…

"No."

Both Kyoraku and Ukitake seemed a bit taken aback with her prompt response. Even Rukia herself was.

"Really?" Kyoraku asked.

"I… I'm pretty sure he wouldn't agree," she said, now a bit fearfully. "Ichigo… he wouldn't want that kind of obligation. Not if it would require abandoning the living world completely. His family is there… his friends. And while he has friends here as well… he wouldn't do that."

Ukitake smiled, somewhat sadly. "Yes, I was under that impression as well," he said. "Well, I guess I won't be suggesting that at the upcoming meeting. You know, Shunsui, good thing we have talked Shinji, Kensei and Rose into taking up their old positions. The last time I was pretty sure they just said no because we haven't given them any good reasons to come back…"

"It is sure a benefit to have them back – they are very fun to hang out with – but don't you think Yama-jii is just waiting to start a rant on us because we haven't asked him first?" Kyoraku asked.

"He probably is, but that's okay. He'd probably just scold us and leave it. Remember when Urahara-san asked if we were going to co-operate if the third method of restoring Ichigo-kun's power failed? He said we must all be prepared in minutes if that happens. I guess he's being rather lenient on rules these days."

Rukia stared rather awkwardly as both Captains started laughing at the memory.

"Well, if that's all—" Ukitake started, but Rukia didn't quite let him finish.

"Um… just one more question, sir…"

"Go ahead, then."

"About… well, about the situation in Avalon…"

"Ah, so you've heard," Ukitake noted with a sigh. "It's still being discussed. Ariana-san is not overly certain of Prescott's objectives so we have to be especially careful in what we decide. We do not want to lose any officers."

"I see… is he… dangerous? Hinamori-san mentioned that over two hundred soldiers died in two days."

"Well, he does seem to be well organized," Ukitake said with a thoughtful look on his face, which was soon replaced by a grin. "Don't worry, Kuchiki. Ariana-san is rather good when presenting information. We already know much more about Avalon than what we had learned in over ten centuries. If you could please make sure that Sentaro and Kiyone are handling the new graduates, since Shunsui and I have a few other matters to take care of."

"Oh, hai, Ukitake-taichō!"

Rukia smiled a little as she turned back towards the room where Hinamori was, intending to say goodbye to the other Vice-Captain, but she stopped short when she saw the girl gripping her Shihakushou tightly, as if she was trying to stop the shaking.

"Hinamori-san…"

"I'm okay," she said quickly, without looking up. "I'm just… I'm just worried… about what's going on. Everything is all right, Kuchiki-san… please don't tell anyone about this."

Rukia watched her for what had to be over ten seconds, before lowering her head. "I… all right."

She understood, at least somewhat, when a person wanted to handle their inner demons on their own.

"Do… do you think I should cut my hair?"

"Err—what?"

"My hair… to cut it short. I haven't really thought of it, but… it looks really nice on you, so I think maybe I should give it a try… what do you think, Kuchiki-san?"

"I… yes… it's a nice change… I don't see why not."

Hinamori smiled. "Thank you."

* * *

"Wait… what did you just say?" Ichigo demanded, with his eyes wide looking from Chad to Inoue and back. Behind him, sitting on Ichigo's bed, Neville cocked his head, quite a bit frustrated that once again Ichigo forgot that he could understand only a couple words of Japanese. Ichigo, for his part, did not appear to have paid attention at all.

Inoue wriggled in her spot leaning against Ichigo's desk, purposely looking anywhere but at Ichigo. "Um… Ishida-kun was injured yesterday…"

"And you're telling me this _now_?"

"Calm down, Ichigo. We couldn't have called you in the middle of the night," Chad said calmly.

"But—"

"Besides, I spoke to Ishida-kun's father and he said he'll let me know when Ishida-kun is released so I can make sure his injuries are treated well," Inoue pointed out.

"Uh… guys… do you mind speaking in English?" Neville said quietly from behind.

"Sorry, sorry, Neville-kun," Inoue answered him quickly, in a bit of an accented English.

"So… umm… does anyone mind telling me what's going on?" he said. "You all look worried… It's unnerving."

"A friend of ours got hurt, yesterday," Inoue replied. "We… we're just worried because we don't know what happened."

"I'm sorry to hear that…"

"So do you have any idea who could have attacked Ishida?" Ichigo asked in Japanese, looking off at the distance. "It hadn't been a Hollow, had it? If it had, I'll never let him live it down."

"I… the Reiatsu from his wound was really strange," Inoue admitted. "It was… well, somewhat reminding me of a Hollow's, but I know it wasn't a Hollow. I just don't know who or what it was…"

"Umm… so, do you know who could have attacked this friend of yours?" Neville asked, completely unable to guess what the others were talking about.

"No…" Inoue said quietly. "But we're going to find out, of course. Even if it had been someone who we don't know, we'll figure them out. Nobody can attack Ishida-kun and get away with it."

"Hmm… Ichigo, you think it could have been that weird guy from yesterday? He didn't look very pleasant…"

* * *

Ichigo turned his head towards Neville, his hand unconsciously reaching for the card he'd received the day before. _What did he say his name was? Gin… no, something similar, yeah, but… darn, I can't remember. _He looked down at the card and twisted it until he found the phone number. _The first numbers… he's from Naruki city… How the hell does he even know about me ever being a Shinigami? Who is that guy?_

"He better not," he said. _Wait, wait wait… Wasn't the reason Yoruichi left Hogwarts early some guy making his moves in Karakura… damn, she said something about it, I know it. Ginjo something? Then… that's_ why_ that name sounded familiar!_

"Hey, Neville…"

"Eh? Yes?"

"You stay here," Ichigo said. "Sorry. I didn't mean to drag you into any of this when I invited you over."

"What are you talking about, Ichigo? Wait, don't tell me that you know what's going on?"

But Ichigo didn't appear to be listening as he stood up, rumbling his old schoolbag for his phone. His glare somewhat softened as he found his former Substitute Shinigami badge instead.

"Stay with him, Inoue, Chad."

"But Kurosaki-kun—"

"I said stay!"

He took the badge and pushed it into the pocket of his winter jacket, before putting it on.

"Ichigo…" Chad started.

"Just don't. I don't know what's going on, but I sure as hell don't want to sit around and wait to find out. You two stay here, make sure my family's safe. Keep an eye on Neville, too, because if whoever had attacked Ishida ends up going after him, he won't be able to fight back."

"And… what about you, Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue asked quietly. "What are you… what are you going to do now?"

"Me? I'm going to find out just what the hell is going on."

With that, he left the room.

* * *

"There's no way we can get him to change his mind… is there?" Orihime asked quietly.

"Well… he at least looks as if he has _some_ sort of idea what may have happened…" Sado-kun replied.

"I thought so too… I'm not sure whether to be happy or upset because Kurosaki-kun is trying so hard to protect us."

"Hmm… you said the attacker had odd Reiatsu?"

"Mm. Kind of like yours, only… different."

"I see. Inoue, can you stay here with Neville? I think I know somebody who may be able to help us."

"Sado-kun?" Orihime blinked as he simply walked out of Kurosaki-kun's room. "Not fair, Sado-kun!"

"Don't tell me he went after Ichigo…" Neville groaned from behind. "Nothing good ever happens if somebody's following him…"

Inoue gave him a crooked smile. "I have an idea, Neville-kun."

"What? You also want to go after him, Inoue?"

She giggled at his pronunciation of her name. "Uh… not really. I have faith that Kurosaki-kun knows what he's going. Same goes for Sado-kun. No, my idea is a little bit different."

She saw wariness in his eyes.

"Really?"

She grinned.

"We're going snowballing!"

* * *

"_Is it necessary to have such a freakin' complicated voice machine strapped to your phone?"_

Kugo blinked, startled at several things. First, he was startled by the person calling on the phone. Second, the absolutely antagonistic sound of the aforementioned voice. Third, the fact he hadn't expected any call at _all._

Nevertheless, he regained his composure quickly.

"Well," he drawled, "look who's calling. I was pretty sure you said you weren't interested in what I had to say, Kurosaki."

"_And you're right. I'm not interested in that. I have some other questions I want answered."_

"And what the hell makes you think I've got all the answers you need?"

"_Absolutely nothing."_

Ginjo now only wanted to hang up. "Then why the hell are you calling?"

"_It's pretty simple, really. I want to see you face-to-face, punk, see if I can kick your ass when holding back."_

"You…! Let's see if you dare to say that in my face! Stay wherever the hell you are, Kurosaki, I'm coming out!"

* * *

Ichigo blinked as the other guy hung up. _Okay… so he's really easy to rile up… and I now confirmed it that he can find me by tracking my Reiatsu… _He pushed the phone back in his jacket pocket. _The only thing left is…_

"There you are, Kurosaki…"

Ichigo didn't need to turn around.

"Damn, you're fast."

Ginjo snorted. "Please, if you'd been expecting anything less, you'd be in Karakura, not here. Now that I thought of it, how'd you figure I was here in the first place?"

Ichigo glanced sideways at the other man. "You're a dumbass if you can't figure that one out for yourself."

"For a bratty seventeen-year-old, you're awfully rude, Kurosaki. Hasn't anyone ever taught you any manners?"

"Don't worry, old man, I've got manners. I'm just very selective when applying them."

"Hey, I'm not that old for you to call me an old man! And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I like being rude to those who think it's fun to attack Ishida."

There, it was out now. Ichigo had no idea whether he was right about this one or not (it was just a hunch), but any reaction this guy made was probably going to hold the answer he needed.

Ginjo, for starters, just stared at Ichigo rather blankly, the only word escaping him being a rather unintelligent, "Huh?"

_Damn it!_

"Guess not. Moving on, how the hell do you know about me?"

"Know… about you?" Ginjo asked, somewhat confusedly, but a second later a grin stretched over his face. A smug, mocking, _challenging_ grin. "What? Do you think that only Soul Society is aware of what you've been doing since you've first gotten your Shinigami powers? Damn, I haven't heard a joke like this in _ages_. You're well suited to be a professional entertainer, Kurosaki."

Ichigo barely resisted slamming his foot into the guy's face. _This_ particular problem was becoming especially annoying.

* * *

Neville had had some issues about the whole 'snowballing' idea, but as he had never been given a chance to complain, he couldn't quite say that it was _his_ fault for what happened. On the other hand, while blaming Inoue – whom he's a bit reluctant to call by her first name because it's _weird_ and Ichigo doesn't do it – would be the better course of action, he would be the one feeling awful later on as it was _his_ snowball that had broken that grumpy man's window.

But there she was, smiling and bowing, saying something in Japanese language completely foreign to the poor British wizard stuck among Japanese muggles and the tall man – he was at least over six and a half feet tall – was nodding back, occasionally scowling over in Neville's direction, but then she grinned, waved at him and suddenly everything was okay.

"Hmm… maybe we should go to the park instead," she told him cheerfully. "There might be others and we can turn it into a huge snowball tournament! Then we can call Tatsuki-chan, Mahana-chan, Ryo-chan, Kurosaki-kun, Sado-kun and so many others! We may even win the nationals!"

Neville smiled awkwardly. "That… doesn't sound too bad, but maybe we should leave snowballing aside and go back to Ichigo's house… umm… maybe he's returned."

Inoue closed her eyes, seemingly concentrating, then opened them with a sigh. "No, he's still far away. Unless I'm really mistaken, Kurosaki-kun has probably gotten into a fight… and Sado-kun is there and he is all right so everything's okay."

Neville was quite a bit surprised at the girl's logic. "Ichigo's gotten into a fight and you consider that okay?" he asked, half-incredulously, half-amazedly.

"Hmm… well, I would be worried if it was a horo or an arankaru*, but since it isn't any of those, it is probably just some delinquent. Kurosaki-kun really attracts those a lot. I think even some yakuza still consider him to be on the top of the list even after he left Japan…" she put a finger to her chin, assuming a thinking pose. "Mm… I'll have to ask Tatsuki-chan later, she's the one who told me about that in the first place…"

Frankly, Neville could have done without that particular information. He wasn't surprised, so to speak, with the whole fighting thing because Ichigo just seemed to be a type of a person to punch somebody in the face if they annoyed him – or at least when provoked – but to hear he had an actual reputation… it was downright _wrong_.

He was looking at Inoue, barely concealing his surprise, when he saw something gleam from the other side.

"Duck!"

Neville felt dull pain at his chest before his back hit the ground forcefully, his sight whitening for a second. He rose up on his elbows quickly, trying to gather what just happened, when he saw Inoue standing in front of him protectively and something orange breaking into pieces.

"I'm sorry, Neville-kun, I didn't mean to push you down that hard. Thank you for warning me," Inoue said, but she wasn't looking at him.

Her stance was as if she was expecting an attack coming in every second, her back turned to Neville. It took the Gryffindor a bit longer to realize that she was looking at their attacker, apparently waiting for an attack to head their way. He scrambled to his feet immediately.

"W-what just happened?" he asked. "Do you know who that is?"

"No," her answer was quiet and her face somewhat worried.

Neville kept looking from Inoue to the mysterious attacker who seemed to be gripping his fist tightly, the look on his face suggesting it had hurt immensely.

_Hey, now that I thought of it, what was that orange thing?_

Inoue made a hesitant step over towards their mysterious attacker. "Daijobu ka?"

When the short teenager nodded, she started once again talking in Japanese in which Neville couldn't tell one word from another. But then the said teenager jumped up pointing a fist at her and started yelling, so Neville, as the DA had taught him, reacted quickly and without much thinking.

"Stupefy!"

The red beam of light hit the unsuspecting mysterious attacker in the chest, successfully knocking him out cold.

"Eh? What did you do, Neville-kun?" Inoue asked, hesitantly approaching the delinquent like teenager and poking him with a finger. "Did you hurt him?"

"Um… no… I just, you know, stunned him. He's going to be all right in a couple of minutes," Neville admitted sheepishly.

"Wow! So that's what magic is like! So cool! Aah… I wish I had a power like yours, to knock somebody out without having to hurt them. It's amazing!"

Neville couldn't really find anything rightfully amazing about a simple stunning spell. Sure, it took him a long time to learn how to perform it right, but it was nothing special. Harry had been able to do it for years and Neville hadn't even mastered it completely. He just got better at aiming and speed, but the spell itself was not strong.

"Uh, so… do you know him?" he asked as he tucked his wand back. _Oh Merlin, I hope I don't lose my wand for this! I don't want to be arrested! Or worse, expelled!_

"No," Inoue told him. "He's got odd Reiatsu, a bit like Chad's, but… I don't recognize it. Hmm… is he really going to be all right?"

"Yeah. But maybe we should go," Neville suggested. "When he wakes up, he might try to attack again. I really don't want to hurt him."

"We can't just leave him here, though," Inoue objected. But then she whipped around promptly, her hand outstretched and a glowing orange triangle shield protecting them from an attack of a _sword_.

The man holding it smiled, saying something in Japanese, to which Inoue replied to rather defiantly. But from the place where the sword impacted, the orange shield began to crack and the attacker literally disappeared from their sight.

Inoue was just as fast, shouting, "Shiten Koshun!"

The triangular shield prevented the sword from reaching them again, but this time a beam of warm orange light gathered at the center and was launched at the attacker, who was just as surprised as Neville, when the beam of light cut through his shoulder. The tall man was launched backwards, barely regaining his footing.

"What was that?" Neville asked in awed voice.

"Uh… something I've been working on for quite some time," Inoue informed him. A distantly sad smile crossed over her face. "I can't seem to master it yet, no matter how hard I try, but I've made some great progress over the past months."

She fell into another stance as their attacker finally managed to stand straight, albeit gripping the cut. From what Neville could see, it was pretty deep. The previously calm, even relatively somber façade was now gone, replaced by a scowl, yet it was nothing compared to Ichigo's daily one.

But once again he disappeared from their sight, and Neville got a distinct feeling that this time, Inoue would not be enough to stop him.

* * *

Ginjo dived backwards, only barely dodging Kurosaki's spin-kick aiming for his chest. With Bringer Light he retreated over twenty feet away, hoping to catch a breath, but Kurosaki appeared from his side, attempting another attack. Ginjo blocked the fist with his forearm.

_Ah, shit! Now that's gonna leave a mark!_ He pushed Kurosaki back, once again reaching for his necklace, but damn, Kurosaki was fast. Perhaps… too fast.

_Holy shit, what is up with this kid? I've only taunted him a little! _He was forced to once again dodge within an inch and every next attack seemed to be coming closer.

_Damn it, it's clear he's good at hand-to-hand combat, but how the hell did he manage to copy Bringer Light with no freakin' training? Hell he'd seen it once and boom! And the lone fact he's just focused makes his attacks five times stronger than they'd be if he was just a human! Which he is supposed to be! The increase in Reiatsu couldn't have—_

Ginjo's thoughts were cut there as a skillful uppercut from Kurosaki brought a whole new world of pain.

He cursed out loud as he straightened up. Less than half an hour and the kid already had him beat and as if things weren't bad enough, the look in Kurosaki's eyes practically yelled at him "I don't trust you!"

_Darn, it had to have been something I've said… _he thought. _I haven't even threatened him with anything yet he went ballistic. And he's been suspecting me from the very beginning! Exactly how did things get this shitty?_

He wiped the blood from his mouth. At least one of his teeth was broken in pieces. How and when the hell had Kurosaki grasped such power? Reiatsu terms, he was much weaker than Ginjo, but the main problem rested on the fact that even if he wanted, Ginjo simply couldn't get a chance to use his Fullbring.

_Just you wait, Kurosaki, I'll get you back for this, I swear._

"Are you going to stop trying to kill me already?" he demanded. "I don't know what the hell is going on in your brain, but I'm pretty sure I haven't deserved a treatment like this!"

"What? Scared of a spar? This is just warm-up," Kurosaki replied. "And I ain't quitting until you tell me exactly how you've learnt all those things!"

"What the—? What things?" Ginjo snapped back. Though now he had a pretty good idea where this was going. Well, at least he could proudly say his 'student' was a fast learner… but at least now he'd gotten a chance.

"You know about Ishida, Inoue, Chad and me. Then you seem like you know about my dad and Urahara-san too. Unless you start talking soon, I'm going to have to kick this spar up a notch! I'm tired of shit happening behind my back!"

_Well, damn,_ Ginjo though, scowl deepening. _So kid's had a bad day and now I've just been the drop that filled over the glass. Fucking perfect. Well, I do only need him in one piece, so I guess roughing him up shouldn't be that difficult. Not to mention that kid's not even got an idea of Fullbring… but then how the hell did he use Bringer Light?_

"Sorry, brat, ain't elaborating yet," he said. "Cross of Scaffold!" He _enjoyed_ seeing the look of befuddlement on Kurosaki's face when the kid saw what happened. "You're now officially toast, Kurosaki!"

* * *

How Ichigo had managed to dodge the slash that was literally screaming out for his blood was beyond him. All he knew, however, was that he'd managed to do so and there was only a small cut down at his jacket.

_What the hell is that thing? _

The freaking broadsword was now aiming for his head, which Ichigo successfully dodged by literally diving under it and kicking Ginjo in the abdomen as he was completely open. However, Ginjo merely grunted.

_Well, this sucks. He's at an advantage with that thing and any wrong move on my part can get me killed. Just beating the crap out of him isn't going to work, either. I need something… a trick, a weapon, _anything.

But at least he could keep up with Ginjo's speed, although every muscle in his body was beginning to ache a _lot._

_No way I'm quitting! I'm not letting him off the hook until he tells me exactly what he wants! _

Using the odd move he'd picked up from Ginjo, he dodged another attack, but Ginjo was quick to follow. A single flash of movement and the stinging pain at his forearm followed, draining the sleeve of his jacket in blood.

"Not giving in yet, Kurosaki? You're pretty determined for a seventeen-year-old."

"What? Did you actually think I'd quit? I want some answers, dammit, so you better start talking!"

"Are you that scared that your own dad is plotting something behind your back? Or do you just feel left out because nobody's telling you what is going on?"

Ichigo grit his teeth. "Well, whatever's going on, you're obviously behind it!"

"Whoever the hell suggested that? I may be involved yeah, but I'm a neutral! Neutral!"

"Yeah, like every other freaking neutral I've met! Those things usually end up with the said neutral either asking for my help or wanting to kill me, so excuse me if I'm a bit skeptical about this!"

Ginjo charged again.

"So that's the problem, Kurosaki? You're feeling left out because nobody's telling you the truth, trying to keep you out of the picture? Trying to keep you from getting involved even though you are already completely involved?"

_Hell, he sure knows how to press the wrong buttons! _Ichigo ducked under the sword, feeling it zoom over his head. Damn it, there wasn't even anything he could use as a weapon since they were fighting in a goddamn empty _parking lot_!

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo's head whipped around. "Chad? What are you doing here? I told you to stay back!"

He was prevented from hearing his friend's reply as Ginjo charged at him once again with more force than before.

_Oh, shit… this is going to hurt._

* * *

Neville's eyes were wide, the wand in his hand and generally his whole body shuddered. Without any knowledge, any explanation of how or why or when, the weird person who had attacked them now had a sword piercing through Inoue Orihime and it was only by some miracle that he hadn't completely cut her in half.

Perhaps some other time, when less stunned by the scene unfolding before him, Neville would wonder how come that there was no single drop of blood on either the sword or Inoue, but as of now, his brain was too shocked to process that particular detail. He had to do something. For Merlin's, his gran's, Ichigo's and even his own sake, he had to do _something._

So he did.

The attacker had never gotten a chance to move away, seeing as he had not been in a position to see a wand pointed in his back.

"Impedimenta!"

However, the stranger's movements were not completely stopped. Not that Neville had expected them to be, anyway. He just had to make sure he stayed in place while he performed a bit stronger stunner, but much slower and less precise.

And that had, fortunately, been successful. The attacker was out cold, the sword literally turning into a bookmark and falling lightly into the snow. Inoue was still standing, looking technically all right, but shaken.

"I… I thought he cut you…" Neville whispered fearfully. But there was no single trace of a wound at _all_.

"I… thought so too," Inoue said shakily. She swallowed, her fingers tracing the trail that no longer existed.

"So… what do we do now?" Neville asked. "If they attacked us, it probably means they were the ones that have attacked that other friend of yours…"

"Ah, yeah… you're right. I… I guess we should tie them up…" she suggested. "If they really attacked Ishida-kun…"

"Um… how do you suggest we tie them up?" Neville asked.

Inoue grinned nervously. "Uh… how about I give a call to Tatsuki-chan and see if she can provide us with either some rope or handcuffs!"

And while she talked on the phone in Japanese, Neville picked up the bookmark that had formerly been the sword piercing Inoue. _What is this? Is some sort of Transfiguration charm applied to turn it into a sword by one's will? And it didn't change when that guy was holding it… only changing after he dropped it. Wandless magic? Is that even possible? Sure, what Inoue did was probably some other form of wandless magic, but it's still creepy…_

He picked up the bookmark, pushing it in his jacket pocket. Whatever it was, leaving it lying around was just asking for trouble.

"Ah! Tatsuki-chan will be here in two minutes!" Inoue exclaimed cheerfully.

Neville smiled. Once Ichigo came back, he had some serious explaining to do.

* * *

Ichigo emerged from Ginjo's attack with a very deep cut in his shoulder, broken wrist and far too many bruises and cuts to count.

Of course, Ginjo hadn't gotten out unscathed either. Well, not from the fight on the whole, at any rate. Ever since he got that broadsword out, Ichigo had only managed to kick him once and punch him twice – and none of that resulted in causing much damage.

"Ichigo, your badge!"

"What?"

"Your substitute badge, Ichigo! Use it!"

"Shut up, Sado!"

"What the-? How the hell am I supposed to use it? That thing stopped working ages ago!" Ichigo yelled, but he had to quit as another attack from Ginjo nearly cut him.

"Focus, Kurosaki! You're the one who started this!"

"Wha—if you'd answered my questions, I wouldn't have!" Ichigo snapped.

"Can't kick my ass now, can you?" Ginjo taunted. "You're completely hopeless!"

Ichigo cursed mentally as he realized that Ginjo wasn't that far off the mark. All the blood loss was making him dizzy and every single bone and muscle in his body was screaming in pain, but hell if he gave up now.

"Your substitute badge, Ichigo! Use it to activate your Fullbring!" Chad yelled.

_Activate… what? Well, whatever. At this rate, it certainly doesn't hurt to try._

He took the wooden badge from his pocket, a part of him impressed that it hadn't fallen out long ago. He gripped it tightly with absolutely no idea what he was doing. He was following some gut instinct and really, he was only half aware of everything that was going on.

Damn, the blood loss was affecting him real bad.

_Now what…? _He wondered. Insert the Reiatsu or not?

_Think back, think back! There has to be some sort of a trick! The badge? Why would Chad tell me to use the badge…? For a while it was my only proof all those stuff really happened. _

Ginjo was heading straight for him once again, he needed to do _something._

_I never really wanted to throw it away… I needed a proof. I needed it… and I still do. I haven't really thought of it before, but… what I had been missing at Hogwarts…_

The Reiatsu sprung out from the badge itself, black with a red outline. Ichigo stared at it, recognizing the form – the _guard_ – his only warning to Ginjo being Chad's call. It was too late to dodge, and either way he wouldn't be fast enough.

He lifted it, the badge, whatever the thing had just become, blocking Ginjo's attack, but the lone force of the attack was enough to make his hand shake as he tried to keep the broadsword away. With the last push, he forced Ginjo to back away. Then he just collapsed.

* * *

"Nemu, have the final results of the experiment been finished yet?"

"I…" Kurotsuchi Nemu hesitated. "It appears so, Mayuri-sama, but… this is impossible…"

"Nothing is impossible, you uncompe—" Kurotsuchi Mayuri's words died on his lips as he saw the readings. "Impossible."

"What do we do, Mayuri-sama?"

"Get Hinamori here," he instructed. "She's the only one as of yet who had had any contact with it. Bring her here immediately!"

"I understand, Mayuri-sama." Nemu nodded, within seconds disappearing from the premise.

_Impossible. Or better yet, not impossible, just very, very improbable… if this turns out to be true, then we have a major problem… oh, I'm so going to enjoy dissecting that Shinigami Substitute kid! He may prove to be one of the most interesting specimens ever!_

* * *

*I decided to use Japanese romaji spelling instead of Hollow and Arrancar purely it's because Neville's POV and he's got no idea what either of those words mean, so he hears them the way they had been spoken. Err... yeah?

Gah... this chapter was torture... until the part where Neville owned Sushigawara. After that, things went much easier. Hell, that wasn't even _supposed_ to happen, but meh. At first literally everyone was supposed to be mind raped by Tsukishima right in the beginning... but now my muse has messed that particular plan and I've got a completely different one. Rehashing canon was never even the point, anyway. Do tell me how the fight scenes worked out, please, since I'm pretty new with those and I've no idea if they're all right or not!


	17. Chapter 16: Ginjo's dilemma

Chapter 16: Ginjo's dilemma

Mayuri smugly observed the two rows of Captains and Vice-Captain present at the meeting. Standing right across the Captain Commander, he was in the perfect position to lay out his findings for everybody to hear. As of yet the only person who had had a clue about what was going on, besides his own Vice-Captain, was Hinamori Momo, currently the only Vice-Captain besides his own (actually, that Abarai brute was not with his Captain either) that was not present in the meeting.

"So… why have we gathered up like this?" Shinji Hirako asked lazily. Seeing as the Gotei Thirteen was in dire needs of Captains, he and his two Vizard friends had been reinstated immediately upon Captain Commander's approval. Maybe now Mayuri would be allowed to perform some experiments, but only after his current research was over.

"You may begin, Kurotsuchi-taichō," Yamamoto said.

Without anything better to do anyway, Mayuri obeyed.

"For over a year now, we have been running under an assumption that magic exists in order to increase the amount of a user's Reiryoku. That assumption is wrong."

He paused for the sake of a dramatic effect, and relished as the utter silence greeted his words like an old friend. The first person to snap out of it was Kuchiki Rukia and that was not in the least bit unexpected.

"But—then how did Ichigo's Reiatsu—?"

"I'll get to that part later," Mayuri told her dismissively. "The crux of the matter is; magic devours Reiatsu." And this time he did not pause for the sake of drama. The stunned looks he was receiving were really much like a great boost to his ego.

However, as to not confuse them too much (they were all a bunch of ignorant fools, anyway), he continued. "I suppose I didn't quite word that bit correctly. Magic devours any kind of spiritual matter, whether it is the basic form of Reishi, dormant of Reiryoku or the active form of Reiatsu. Does that sound more appealing?"

It took the Captains and Vice-Captains some time to process exactly what this meant for them, and from the look on most of their faces, Mayuri could tell that over a half of them still failed to understand the importance of this information. Such wasted talent. At least the Kuchikis, Hitsugaya, Unohana, Hirako, Kyoraku, Ukitake and the Captain Commander seemed to have realized.

"How is that possible?" Ukitake asked. "Reiatsu-sucking devices are not an unknown, but this seems to be on a whole new level… Such power in the hands of humans…"

"Impossible, horrifying, wrong, blah. Such things are of no importance to me. Yes, the principle it works on is loosely based on the properties of his eye patch." Mayuri made a non-comitial gesture towards Zaraki.

The said Captain growled in low voice, which Mayuri ultimately ignored.

"Or you could say that the technology of the eye patch is based off of magic's relation to Reishi. It really comes down to one and the same," Kyoraku concluded.

"It is, however, far more complete, much more devious and absolute predicament," Mayuri continued, ignoring the other Captain's contribution. "It is also severely limited. So no, these magic users, wizards, or whatever you want to call them, are not really Quincy. Had magic not been so limited, Hinamori, Hitsugaya, Kuchiki and everyone else who had the fortune to visit Hogwarts even once would have been consumed. Its total limitations is not something I can yet testify on, as there is so much more to learn about this anomaly, but what I know so far clearly points out that magic itself is unable to work without a proper medium. In the most frequent cases: the wand."

"So… that means if any Reishi matter at all even dared to touch a magic wand, it would be sucked in and added to the power of a wand?" Kyoraku said. "How… disappointing. I had always been interesting into casting a spell. It's saddening that now I can't do it… but… then how did Hinamori-chan manage?"

Mayuri once again dismissed the question easily. "She was in a Gigai, you moron. They're not made of Reishi alone, naturally. And unless magic has a brilliant mind of its own, it is not capable of segregating Reishi from actual atoms. In such cases, like with humans, it can only feed on Reiryoku and Reiatsu in. Preposterous how much knowledge a Captain lacks. Anyone with half a brain would've understood this immediately."

"Sheesh, not all of us are a part of research lab," Hirako grumbled.

"These are the basics of the basics!" Mayuri snapped. Fast enough, he collected himself. "But never mind. Arguing with the likes of you is a waste of my time thus I won't do it. Well, if that is all, I would prefer to return to the confines of my laboratory—"

"And what about Ichigo?" the Kuchiki girl asked immediately.

Mayuri merely waved away. "He'll live."

"He'll—what is that supposed to mean?" asked Hitsugaya, speaking up for the first time in the meeting.

"Well, turning him into a Shinigami will either kill him if he's not strong enough, or just be excruciatingly painful."

"WHAT?" Kuchiki Rukia shouted.

"Oh… I guess I forgot to mention this," Mayuri mumbled disappointedly. "Over time, magic literally binds the body and soul together and no longer is a medium such as Chain of Fate necessary. Naturally, that process takes at least seven years of extensive use of magic so really, turning Kurosaki into a Shinigami again won't cause any drastic changes… unless if it kills him permanently. Wizards can't go in and out of their bodies like normal humans. Though we could hardly call that Kurosaki kid normal."

"But Urahara's got contingency plans for something like that, doesn't he?" asked Hitsugaya doubtfully.

"That you've got to ask him," he bit off. "I'm afraid I am not in on his experimental work as of late. If you'll excuse me, I have my experiments to go back to. Just remember to ship Kurosaki to my lab once his Shinigami powers are back. There are many data I wish to see for myself."

He left the room with his head held high, barely resisting the urge to send all of those idiots to Hell for a certain amount of time. Ignorant _fools_.

Back in the meeting hall, over twenty people stood as silence rang through the room. Finally, someone thought it was fit to interrupt it, albeit quietly.

"This is bad, isn't it?"

Needless to say, nearly everybody in the room agreed.

* * *

Ichigo became aware of the world around him after what felt like a really short, really restless nap. Hell, even opening his eyes demanded effort and his first thought was that he just wanted to get some sleep. But as his fight with Ginjo came back to him (and not as a part of a dream, mind you), he noted the absence of the sharp pain in his shoulder.

Actually, with every passing second, he was beginning to feel better, which could only mean one thing.

"You're awake, Kurosaki-kun!"

"Oh… Yo, Inoue… mind telling me what you're doing here?"

He groaned as he attempted to lift himself up on the elbows. His condition was much better now, but he was not nearly completely healed.

"Sado-kun called. He said you got hurt while fighting Ginjo-san. And just at the time Neville-kun and I were under attack, too…"

"Huh? Somebody attacked you?!"

"Oh, don't look so worried, Kurosaki-kun! We've handled it already! I think Ginjo-san is still laughing… not even Tatsuki-chan managed to calm him down."

Ichigo frantically looked around, but other than the fact that he was still in the empty parking lot, nothing was standing out. Chad, Ginjo, nor Tatsuki were in sight, while Neville was just aimlessly walking around.

But as he started paying attention to the sounds, he could hear some arguing coming over from the opposite side of the street.

"Where are they?" he asked Inoue.

"Oh, well, you see, a couple people saw your fight with Ginjo-san and Sado-kun… well, Sado-kun thought they shouldn't know so Ginjo-san went to knock them out… it's pretty complicated, really. But that was before Tatsuki-chan, Neville-kun and I arrived. After we had… well, Ginjo-san started laughing really hard when he saw who attacked Neville-kun and me. Tatsuki-chan got worried and—well, she dragged him away. We should come too, now. I'm done."

The orange shield dissolved, the two fairies returning back to Inoue's hairpins.

Ichigo flexed his fist and stood up, all the ache finally gone. "Thanks, Inoue."

She looked away nervously, muttering something, but by then he wasn't paying attention. Instead, as he dusted off his clothes, he looked at Neville.

"Are you okay?"

The other boy looked at him with an unreadable expression.

"I suppose," he said. "I'd probably be better off if I knew what was going on… I've used my wand and I really don't want it to be broken…"

"Sorry. I never meant for you to get dragged into any of this. Hell, not even I know what's going on yet."

"Yeah… nobody seems to know anything," Neville said quietly.

Ichigo looked away, not for the first time feeling frustrated at the lack of information. "Come on… Inoue mentioned something… we're probably not supposed to stay here for too long…"

But just as he said that, Chad emerged at the other end of the parking lot. Ichigo stopped in his tracks when he saw him.

"Chad…"

"…Ichigo."

Ichigo could only blink and take it as Chad handed him the substitute badge.

"Let's go. Ginjo's got a place nearby, we can go there for now."

"A—oh… right, then."

"Can you do me a favor and not attack Ginjo again?" Chad asked quietly as Ichigo fell in step with him.

"Unless he gives me another reason to, 'kay," Ichigo mumbled.

But as the group followed Chad towards whatever place Ginjo had, Ichigo's thoughts were all on the small wooden object clutched in his hand. _What _had that been? For a brief period of time, there was power flowing through him. Whether it was his own or the power of the badge, he didn't want to even _begin_ guessing… but it had felt good.

No, not good.

It had felt _fantastic._

They say that ultimate power ultimately corrupts and all that, but if Ichigo hated anything, it was being powerless. This… the brief glimpse of a power as of yet unknown… he just wanted to know how… and why…

And why does Chad seem to know more about it than Ichigo? Hell, everybody seemed to know things better than Ichigo. It was getting _old_ and seriously frustrating. Why was he always the one to learn the stuff the last? That was not fair. It wasn't _natural. _Like people kept hiding things from him on purpose.

While definitely not an insufferable know-it-all-but-ain't-telling (like Urahara), or an almost-know-it-all (like Ishida), Ichigo usually had at least some grasp of things happening around him. Right now he had a feeling he was being tossed around by the currents and there was no way he was going to let that continue on.

"Hey, Chad."

"What is it, Ichigo?"

"You've mentioned this thing called Full… err… Full… Full-something. Yeah?"

"… yeah."

"Aren't you going to… you know… explain it?"

"Umm… sorry, Ichigo. Had I known that your fight with Ginjo was not for the sake of training, I wouldn't have said anything."

"WHA—? CHAD! That's not fair! Is somebody going to tell me what the hell just happened?"

"I'm sorry. Ginjo wanted to explain it himself. I've promised I wouldn't say anything long before I've done this…"

"This is just not fair…"

"Mmm… did I really just hear Kurosaki-kun whine?" Inoue mumbled, somewhat confused.

"NO! I'm not whining, dammit!"

"…you are, Ichigo," Chad said.

"I'm not! Seriously! Aren't we friends? Come on! You can't just keep me in dark about life-threatening stuff that keep happening around me! You know I can't just ignore it!"

"Actually, that is _the_ only reason we're not telling you anything," Chad admitted. "Yet."

"_What?_ Are you trying to tell me I'm _weak?_" Though, technically, compared to Chad and Inoue right now… Ichigo sighed. "No, don't answer that. But let me make it clear that I can take care of myself."

"I know."

"And kicking down a Hollow without breaking a sweat is no big deal."

"Mmhm…"

"I would've beaten up that Ginjo guy had he not gotten that freaking sword out of nowhere!"

"Ichigo… I think Neville's feeling a little bit left out."

Ichigo's head twisted immediately, straight to face Neville with a somewhat sullen, down look. _Shit. _"Uh… err… um… sorry, Neville… I…"

"Never mind… you just go on, keep talking about whatever is going on… you can tell me all about it later."

"Wh—?"

"No, really. I'm serious. What's going on is clearly not something I'm supposed to know, so it's okay, really—"

"Ah, damn! Look, as soon as _I_ figure out what's going on, I'll tell you everything, all right? All right?"

Neville's face lit up.

"Really?"

"Uh… yeah… yeah."

"Promise?"

"Well now you're just crossing a line," Ichigo grumbled.

"But you promise, right?"

"Fine, fine… I promise."

Several seconds passed and Neville looked much more cheerful than he had been for most of the day. All Ichigo could think was, _Well, shit_.

* * *

"Wait, Ariana! That—! Hey, wait! You can't break in there!"

"Move, Mary!"

"No, you can't go inside, they're still bringing him in—!"

"I said MOVE!"

Ariana refused to bother to keep both her voice and Spiritual Energy down, and the rather frightened member of the Defense Unit Two relented, allowing her to enter the confines of Avalon's underground prison.

_Impossible. He couldn't—he wouldn't—_She struggled to keep her thoughts sane as her steps echoed through the hall. The sound of his voice was smug in her ears, absolutely self-assured… _'I don't get caught. I let them catch me.' _It rang through her and she _knew_ it to be true. She could also feel his Spiritual Energy and that was never a good sign.

Before she knew it, her steps had turned into running and that had eventually turned into Flash Step, a motion that was not one of her better developed skills, but she was decent enough.

_No, no, no, please don't let—_

Her thoughts were completely cut off as she reached the final corridor; the one where the worst punishments were dealt. Naturally, something like that would not be able to keep her stunned. She'd been at the underground prison a couple of times and it was really nothing special; a damp, cozy cave with low ceilings, built in order to resemble the catacombs existing in the living world. There was nothing terrible or even solitary about it. Not even when you knew how terrible stuff had a tendency to happen there. It wasn't even mildly upsetting. Not even the fact that none of the prisoners were ever released made it anymore creepier.

The sight before her, however, was a completely different story.

The prison itself did not have many guards – twenty at most – and they were members of either Elite Unit or Defense Unit Two, anyway. The holding cells and even the walls were effectively made of special material that did not allow any use of Spiritual Energy transpire so there really wasn't any necessity for more guards. The Sealers alone made it very difficult to break out, even without the holding cells and the overuse of chains. In short, it was nearly impossible to break out of there.

But in reality, what she was looking at wasn't really a prison break.

The low ceiling, mixed ground and rock walls and the dim light made it only a bit more difficult to spot, but there was some merit behind the 'humans with blue eyes see better in the dark' theory that was currently a very interesting subject in the living world. And thus, Ariana was able to see it clearly enough (though she was pretty sure that anyone else would've realized as well); the blood splattered across the walls and the ground.

She was shaking when she realized she'd actually stepped into one of the poodles on the ground, yet she did not dare look. Nearby, just a few feet away, the person who she knew was the direct subordinate of her husband lay with a thin cut over his neck, his Soul Blade barely half-way out of its sheath. There was still something in his eyes, something that suggested that he was alive, but Ariana knew better. Resisting the urge to vomit right then and there, because she'd liked Seth - he had a good sense of humor, she moved on, not daring to look back. In less than a minute, he would begin to dissolve into Spirit Particles. It was too late.

The further she went, the sight became worse, more bloody, more frightening, but at least she was no longer feeling sick. What? She'd seen nine bodies already? Ten? What was one more, anyway?

But the next body she came across of was not a simple guard, or anybody else she could just look away from because she didn't know them well. The silky, shoulder-length chestnut hair was the first thing she saw – and it was all wet. She didn't have to think to know from what exactly. Eyes, at least, she noted as she struggled not to break down, were closed. She fell down to her knees, hand reaching for the face of Darien Ray as her energy slipped away.

"Dan?" she whispered. "Dan?"

It was pointless, she knew. It was too late and he could no longer hear her. It didn't stop her from calling him again and again, her voice echoing through the deepest, darkest part of the underground prison.

Her fingers were shaking as they rested against the cold skin of the person who brought her out of her shell; the one whom she trusted the most. Even her voice was not as clear and repeating his name as a mantra was becoming difficult.

"He won't be answering that and you know it."

Ariana's head whipped at the direction from where the familiar voice was coming. A second later, her spear was stabbing at the chest of one and only Blake Prescott, the anger, sheer desire for revenge burning in her eyes, her blood.

"You promised."

Her voice was not as harsh as she had intended it to be. It sounded more as if she was just about to fall apart, but really, she wasn't. The hope in her had died a long time ago. She wasn't even sure why she was there in the first place.

His voice was calm, cold and indifferent and most infuriating of all, honest.

"I did."

She pressed the spear further, eyes on the now bleeding wound on Blake's muscled chest, but she knew that the only damage she'd managed to do was simply cut the skin. His head was in shadows and she hated how he was just so much taller than her, but she hopefully imagined a grimace forming on his face from the pain.

He did not even wince.

"You _promised_."

Her voice sounded much worse now, hoarse and breathless, but at least this time it also sounded threatening. It looked like Blake had realized it as well.

"Look, if I could have prevented it, I would have!"

He was on defensive now, but still not lifting the blood covered sword held firmly in his right hand.

"No… No, you wouldn't have," she whispered. "You've… hated Dan… Always. You've hated him!"

_Now_ he winced.

"No_,_" he said defiantly, lowering his head so that he was looking directly in her eyes. Brown clashed with blue and Ariana realized she was shaking. The look on his face was more like a pained grimace than anything else. "He got in my way. That's all there is to it. I warned him, he did not listen. Blame your husband's undying stubbornness and goddamn heroism! Five minutes longer and I would've let him go."

"Five minutes? Five _minutes?_" Ariana had a distinct feeling she was about to start laughing any minute now. "Fuck you, Blake! I should just stab this through your chest completely, see about those bloody five minutes!"

"You can't."

Pure and simple.

And Ariana liked simple. That's why her reply was simple, too.

"Yes. Yes, I can!" she cried.

"No, you—"

But in reality, he knew her just as well as she knew herself.

"SEVERING STAR! PIERCING HEAVENS!"

Or at least he _used_ to.

Several things happened nearly at the same time.

In the first instant, the venomously purple surge of Spiritual Energy gathered at the tip of her spear.

In the second instant, Blake's hand was on the wooden part of her spear, directing it away from his chest.

However, in the first and a half instant, Ariana's attack began, unleashing the purple beam of light and slashing severely over the part of his chest and completely through the skin over his shoulder. Ariana could feel it when it pierced even through the bones effortlessly, before being stopped by the unwavering rock that denied anything Spiritual. The tip of her spear touched the ground with a dull sound as she was no longer capable of holding it against the wall. She was gasping for air, the attack taking away so much of her energy. Not to mention that her reserves were already low from all the activity in the living world just minutes ago.

"Severing Star," Blake mumbled, his own voice sounding as if he was hurt badly and not just physically. He actually sounded disappointed, if her hearing was still functioning well. "A very unique Soul Blade… two special attacks, each with a very special ability: piercing through absolutely anything made of Spirit Particles. Apparently, the power of the one subjected to it does not matter. Spiritual Energy will not stop such an attack hence it's considered nearly unstoppable. First time I got to feel it on my own skin, though."

"Of course it's the first," Ariana choked out. "I've never had a reason to kill you before."

"You're aware that now I'll be able to counter it?"

"Die, you bastard…"

"Don't get in my way. For the last time, Ray, _don't_."

"I said DIE!" Ariana screamed as she attempted another slash.

Her spear was caught by merely two fingers, and he was holding it that way, silently gloating. Or at least she imagined him to. Blake never really gloated over his victories before, but he also knew that she wouldn't be able to budge it.

"There's a reason I'm a General and you're just a Lieutenant-General, Ariana. Your Blade's power is dangerous for absolutely anyone, but it is not really unstoppable. I told you, don't get in my way. I'm letting you off now, but if you cross my way just one other time—you get to join your husband."

Ariana said nothing as his fingers snapped her weapon into two pieces with ease, her head falling low as the part of her weapon fell and traveled all the way to Dan's side. She was drained of energy, of will to fight. With that single move of his fingers, the only thing keeping her sane was taken away from her, every shred of strength in her completely obliterated.

No, she thought as she fell down on her knees ultimately defeated, her eyes resting upon her fallen comrades. _No._

Blake's steps echoed through the corridor as he walked back towards the exit. She heard a gasp, a slash, followed by a dull sound of a body falling down. She shut her eyes tightly, but that didn't stop her from seeing the light die out in Mary's eyes – and to think that she had only wanted to help… A scream tore its way through her throat as she laid one last look on Dan, then General Bowen, who she hadn't even noticed lying a few feet away until now… as she cast one last look towards others…

No. What she was looking at was not prison break.

It was slaughter_._

In the confines of Seireitei's thirteenth division compound, a single tear was all that went down Ariana's face as her eyes snapped open, then quickly closed again.

She no longer trembled when she saw that movie play in her head. She no longer felt the odor of blood after living through it once again. She no longer felt her energy drain away as he'd walk away, leaving those who meant something behind.

Not for the first time, Ariana wondered how she was still sane. Or at the very least, her own definition of the word.

According to any psychology book in the world, she'd probably be classified as complete nutter and sometimes, she wondered if maybe, that was exactly what she was. Because, even after everything he'd got her through, Ariana knew she'd never have it in herself to really kill Blake. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Even though she really, really wanted to.

Groaning, she left 'her' bed. She was supposed to be meeting with those Gotei's Captains in ten minutes, apparently they had some questions. Looking up at the bright and sunny sky, she wondered whether it was once again snowing back home.

_Probably,_ she thought absently. _It's winter._

* * *

Dokugamine Riruka was not in anyway bored out of her mind.

Really.

It's not like she had any reason to be bored, anyway. Jackie was gone again, good old Giriko was still at the bar cleaning over those glasses once _again_ and Yukio was playing those games of his without paying any slightest attention to the outside world. And Ginjo had apparently gone out to bring a new member to their little crew, expect he'd said he'd be back soon and what he was doing right now did certainly not qualify under 'I'll be back soon'.

Riruka jumped on her feet again, marched across the room twice before rooting herself to the spot in the middle.

"I'M BORED!"

Seeing as her back were turned to the door, she failed to notice them open. In fact, she only noticed somebody enter _after_ receiving a solid hit at the back of her head only a few seconds after her initial outburst. And there was only one person who had a habit of doing that.

"GINJO!" She screamed, her finger easily finding exactly who to point at. "Just what the hell was that for?"

"Tone it down, will ya?" he returned lazily. "We've got guests."

She proceeded to watch in astonishment as a girl entered, dragging behind her an unconscious kid unceremoniously, the expression on her face of perturbed annoyance. She was closely followed by Chad, carrying an unconscious Tsukishima over his shoulder. He nodded at the occupants of the room as he walked in. A girl that could most certainly win any beauty contest walked in after them, cheerfully talking to somebody behind her.

Riruka was no longer quite sure what was going on as a clearly non-Japanese kid entered the room as well, but she was pretty sure it was all Ginjo's fault. Then the last member of the group entered and she just stared.

And stared.

And stared.

_AAAHHHH! LOOK AT HIM!_

She was pretty sure she almost started drooling… and she was pointing her finger at _him_ now, instead of at Ginjo.

Great way to ruin the first impression, the rational part of her brain thought. Too bad the rest was not listening.

But really, it's not as if he was looking at her! He was in three-way banter with the dark-haired girl who'd entered first and the European kid. Or American, but Riruka was willing to bet that the kid was European. Americans had better style.

Even a few seconds later as Ginjo convinced the lot of them to make themselves comfortable, she still found it a bit difficult to close her mouth.

Just… what?

The fact that she was being ultimately ignored was not helping.

"Eh? Isn't that Tsukishima-san?" Yukio asked, for the first time for the day moving his eyes away from the stupid game. Actually, he was just blankly looking straight at a very unconscious looking Tsukishima. Riruka had to admit, she was a bit curious about it herself.

"Yeah, how did you knock him out?" she asked, not sure whether to feel surprised or amazed – or just plainly laugh at him.

The good-looking stranger blinked in surprise as he realized she was actually looking at him.

"It's not like I'm the one who did that," he grumbled. Then he switched to only a little bit accented English as he turned to the only non-Japanese in the room. "Say, what did you do to that guy, Neville?"

Hmm… _Neville?_ What kind of a creepy name was that?

Anyway, the Neville was talking so she listened curiously.

"Well, I only used a stunner," he said. "Actually, I'm really surprised he hasn't woken up yet."

British. Definitely British. The accent was _disgusting_.

"Huh? Really? That's one way of handling it, I guess," the handsome stranger said. Well, at least his accent was all right, compared to the British kid's.

"Anyway, Ginjo, or whatever your name is, why are we here?" he said, switching back to Japanese.

"We? Why are _we_ here?" the dark-haired girl snapped. "Why am _I_ here?"

"Come to think of it, why are you here, Tatsuki? This has got nothing to do with you."

"Ichigo, you idiot! It's got everything to do with me! You don't just say no to Orihime when she calls and asks if you have some rope to give her! You don't just ignore it and think of it as weird, either!"

"Err… didn't you just answer to your own question, then?" the newly identified Ichigo said (Riruka actually blinked when she heard the name. Well, it was… _sweet_, she supposed). "And quit yelling already. I'm not deaf."

"Besides, it's not like Tatsuki-chan brought the rope," the pretty girl – who Riruka assumed was the aforementioned Orihime – added unhelpfully, all while smiling.

"Well you can't exactly expect from me to have some rope ready at any given second to tie people up. Those old wires worked well enough! And who are those guys? You aren't telling me anything!" Tatsuki shot back.

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too," Ichigo added, leveling a glare at Ginjo. "You guys seem like you know much more then you let on."

"Are you going to attack me now _again_?" Ginjo grumbled.

"I'm not attacking you, am I? And it's not like I go around attacking people without a reason. It's your fault for acting like a sneaky bastard."

"Well, you can't blame me for wanting to be a bit mysterious, can you?"

"Mysterious my ass! You were acting like a creepy stalker! And what the hell was that sword thing? You could have killed me!"

Riruka watched the ongoing banter skeptically and even more so impatiently. Her arms crossed, she began tapping her foot. Nope, nobody seemed to have noticed yet. Ginjo and Ichigo continued arguing about something that was absolutely pointless and the rest of the group just watched – well, except for Giriko, Yukio and Neville. The former two went back to doing their stuff. The latter was just twirling his fingers somewhat nervously.

Relatively soon, Riruka had enough.

"QUIT IT, WILL YA?" she bellowed. She battered away the urge to smirk smugly at them. At least they'd quit arguing and looked at her. "Now that that's been taken care of, just who are all of you? And who is that other kid you've kidnapped?"

Her questions were met with several genuine looks of confusion.

"Um… kid?" Chad said quietly.

"Him!" Riruka pointed at the other unconscious visitor resting by Tsukishima.

All she got was a collective shrug. Or at least a blank look equivalent of one, anyway. They all seemed to be just as clueless as she was.

"… we don't know," Tatsuki admitted.

"You don't know…?"

A collective shake of heads.

Riruka blinked.

"You don't know… yet you brought him here?"

A collective nod.

"We couldn't just leave him," Orihime said as if it explained everything. And for the most of them, it seemed like it was genuinely so.

"You're kidding me, right? You're telling me you took some freaky delinquent that attacked your sorry asses just because you couldn't _leave him behind_?"

"That's the gist of it," Tatsuki said nonchalantly. "I'm more worried about the reason they attacked than the attack itself. Orihime and Neville handled it well enough."

"And I just want to know if he's the one who attacked Ishida," Ichigo mentioned.

"Hmm… The Reiatsu signatures don't match," Orihime mumbled.

Riruka may have been the only one to notice the small furrowing of Ginjo's eyebrows. Not that she really cared. Whatever mess he had gotten himself into wasn't really her business. For the most part.

"Well, then I still get to kick his ass because he dared to attack you and Neville," Ichigo pointed out.

"Eh… there isn't any need for that, Kurosaki-kun! We're both just fine!"

"I… I just want to know why you were fighting Ichigo if it wasn't for training, Ginjo," Chad admitted.

"He attacked me!" Ginjo shouted defensively. "Anyway," he said as he saw Ichigo about to retort once again, "we aren't getting anywhere with this. Let's just… you know, clear this up so we can all get some rest?"

"Yeah, let's," Tatsuki said. "It's not like I wanted to be here in the first place."

"Well nobody's keeping you," Ichigo remarked snappishly. "This isn't really any of your business!"

The girl glared at him – and Ichigo glared back. Riruka almost felt she could see the sparks as their glares clashed like swords. In the end, Tatsuki was the first to withdraw – but she was also the one who ended up making a point. Sort of.

"Let's go, Orihime," she commanded as she jumped up to her feet. "We've got nothing to do here."

Orihime jumped to her feet as Tatsuki marched out of the door. "Um… I'm—I'll go talk to her. Sorry, Kurosaki-kun, Ginjo-san, Sado-kun… umm…"

"Dokugamine Riruka," Riruka mumbled at the girl's prominent look.

"Right—Riruka-chan. I'll see you all later. Bye, Neville-kun. Wait for me, Tatsuki-chan!"

Ichigo winced as the door slammed shut.

A moment of utter silence—two—then,

"Let's get on with this already," Ichigo said, looking at Ginjo. Even Riruka, who really, really did not know anything about Ichigo, could tell that compared to moments before, he was being serious. Or at least more serious, at any rate. Somehow, that both made him look hotter _and_ scarier. Especially when he'd asked the question.

"What do you want from me, Ginjo?"

* * *

"Tatsuki-chan! Tatsuki-chan! Are you all right, Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime asked as she finally caught up with her best friend. "Kurosaki-kun, he didn't—"

"_Don't_ tell me that he didn't mean that," Tatsuki cut her off. "Because he did. I _know_ he did."

"Well, yes, but—you've got to understand. Kurosaki-kun is just worried—"

"I _know_. That doesn't make him any less bastard than he already is. Just what am I, anyway? Aren't we friends? I know what he's been doing and he knows I do and yet he still goes out of his way to tell me to stay out?"

"I know it's not fair, Tatsuki-chan, just…" Orihime hesitated. "Kurosaki-kun… he doesn't like this. Not being a Shinigami. And it's not just about power. I… won't pretend that I understand, because I don't, but I think he wants to be a Shinigami just as much as he wants power, but that's just my opinion so I guess it doesn't make much sense. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, Kurosaki-kun wants to handle this as quickly as possible. He may have not said it out loud, but… but I'm pretty sure he'll be going to United Kingdom again."

"But he said—"

"He said he won't, I know, but something is happening there. Something big. And Kurosaki-kun… he's got some friends there, no? If something is really going on, he'll want to be there no matter what."

Tatsuki lowered her head. "He'll want to be there, all right," she mumbled. Then she slammed a fist in the nearby wall. "Goddamn it, he'd like to be there!"

"Tatsuki-chan…"

"Let's just go, Orihime. I'm really pissed off with him now. Being a wannabe hero that he is, I'm only bound to get pissed some more. Come on."

Orihime watched her friend for a second before she just nodded. "Yeah. We could go get some ice-cream, don't you think?"

"Are you crazy? Look, it's snowing and you want to go eat ice-cream?" Tatsuki yelled.

Orihime giggled. "It's not so bad! We could go get some strawberry ice-cream with caramel topping and pumpkin seeds and soya beans with lots of sugar and torment it as much as we like!"

Tatsuki shook her head exasperatedly, but she was unable to keep a smile from invading her face. Trust Orihime to get her to relax.

"Fine, fine," she said in the end. "We'll get some ice-cream, then. It's your fault if one of us gets sick later, though."

"It'll be fine, Tatsuki-chan!"

* * *

Ginjo was beginning to get stressed out. Apparently, his 'only a Substitute Shinigami can take the powers of a Fullbringer so we're gonna help you get your powers in order for you to help us' explanation was not nearly enough to get through to Kurosaki's sympathetic or emphatic side. Actually, it only seemed to be making things worse as Kurosaki's answer to that had been along the lines of 'that's none of my business' and Ginjo wasn't having much luck convincing him otherwise. For a type of a person Kurosaki was, Ginjo was actually shocked that he didn't seem to care even despite the fact he'd already stepped into the Fullbring waters.

But then things just kind of went from bad to worse.

"Now you're just being annoying," Kurosaki had said while scratching his forehead. "Look, if you're already so willing to get rid of your powers, go ask Urahara-san. I bet he can help out with it much better than I. Besides, he and Gotei Thirteen are already working on helping me get my powers back. I've gotta wait some more, but I'm okay with it. It's not some big issue or anything."

_That_ had felt like a slap in the face.

Better yet, like being hit by an SUV.

Ginjo sat there with a blank look on his face, the only word coming out of him being a rather flat, "Really."

Kurosaki raised an eyebrow. "What? You now have a problem with that?"

"Well I am now condemned into being stuck with these powers," Ginjo shot back, but he was still in a bit of a shock. Gotei was actually doing that? Had he missed out on something or those damn old fools realized what he was up to and wanted to stop Kurosaki from joining him? Well, they were probably just looking to use him anyway. Kurosaki's power was mildly terrifying when one stopped to think about it. One of the reasons Ginjo wanted to steal it, after all.

But after this, well… it looked like things weren't going to go as smoothly as he'd hoped.

"And when will you get your powers back?" Ginjo asked.

"Uh… I'm not sure. I'm supposed to get stronger up to a certain level for the Soul Society to do whatever they wanted to do, but that's… going a bit slower than normal." Kurosaki's voice gradually turned into a whisper. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, it would take a few months, I guess, can't say for sure."

Well, that sucked.

At this rate, Ginjo's best bet was to either use some other Shinigami Substitute turned Fullbringer or just drop the whole plan altogether and try and steal power of a Fullbringer only. Those goddamn Shinigami sure had it all covered. Assholes. Well, there was still one more card left to play and he'd be damned if he missed this chance.

"Huh. And you actually have faith in those guys."

There was no change in Kurosaki's face. His scowl was already as annoyed as it could get.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked flatly.

"What are you talking about, Ginjo?" Sado asked quickly.

The rest of the Fullbringers listened keenly as well.

"You know that Substitute Badge you've got?"

Kurosaki's hand twitched towards his pocket, but he apparently stopped himself from actually taking it out. "What about it?" His voice was somewhat annoyed, but devoid of any other emotion.

"Do you know what it's used for?" A moment, two – no reaction – and Ginjo continued, "You must've been told it was a Shinigami Substitute combat pass, given to those Shinigami who have been classified as benefit to the Soul Society, am I right so far?"

The look on Kurosaki's face didn't change—except Ginjo noticed a small twitch of his eyebrows.

"Of course I am," he mumbled. "Well, that's a lie."

Now the look on his face did change. Kurosaki's eyes widened a fraction, whether it was disbelief or incredulousness, Ginjo didn't bother to tell.

"You see, the truth is, that badge is given to absolutely any Substitute Shinigami – in order to observe, control and restrict them. Yes. The combat pass enables the Shinigami to know your exact location at all times, but even more than that, it suppresses your power."

"… So?"

Sado was just as surprised as Ginjo at Ichigo's flat response.

"So? So they're limiting you! Restricting, controlling! They took your powers away! You lost your powers because of them! They're keeping you on watch so that if you rebel against them, they could execute you! How's that for so?"

"So what?" Kurosaki returned back stubbornly. "They're also helping me get my power back, which is more than I could have asked for. I've always known there was something weird about that combat pass so this isn't really all that much of a stretch. Besides, how do you know all this stuff? You aren't making it up, are you?"

"Wha—? No!"

"Then how do hell do you know that?" Kurosaki snapped.

He was taken aback when Ginjo literally thrust out his combat pass, placing it right before Kurosaki's nose. The kid's body went rigid, hand absently reaching for the pocket where his own combat pass was, only confusing him more as he realized that his badge was still in its place.

"Can you guess now?" Ginjo demanded.

Kurosaki's eyes narrowed, every trace of curiosity instantly wiped away. "What? So you've gotten a bit paranoid and now you want me to help you kick some Shinigami ass?" he asked.

"Paranoid? I haven't gotten paranoid! Substitute Shinigami aren't supposed to exist! Naturally Gotei Thirteen would be looking for any fucking way to get rid of me! To get rid of _you_! How the hell are you taking this so calmly when the man behind the whole this idea is the Captain of the Thirteenth division, Ukitake Juushiro! And the rest of them—they all know! They must!"

"So? Isn't the best solution then not to break their rules?" Kurosaki countered. "On a side note, I've broken at least a dozen of their goddamn rules and you don't see me waiting to be executed!"

Ginjo pulled his badge back, tucking it in his back pocket.

"I see… so that's how it is," he spoke softly. "They've turned you into their lapdog, their little martyr—"

That was as far as he got.

Kurosaki grabbed the collar of his shirt, dragging him to his feet. Ginjo cursed inwardly. Whatever the Shinigami had him doing for the past four months, it made Kurosaki much stronger than Ginjo, at least physically, but at the moment it wasn't like Ginjo had the opportunity to use his Fullbring.

"I'm not _anybody's_ lapdog!" Kurosaki said and for the first time Ginjo realized that _now_ Kurosaki was pissed. What had him attack Ginjo before could be called annoyance and the slightest bit of irritation. Compared to that, this was pure, barely restricted anger.

"The only reason I'm not going to beat the shit out of you right now is because I told Chad I wouldn't pick a fight with you. Apparently, he seems to think you're not as much of an asshole as I thought you'd be. Guess I'm right after all."

Kurosaki released his shirt and Ginjo dropped back on the sofa.

"I had trouble figuring out what the hell your motives were, but now I could care less. Same goes for your training offer. Let's go, Chad, Neville."

The British kid, who hadn't at all understood any word that was said, looked up at the mentions of his name. "We're leaving?"

"…yeah. Waste of time coming here, really."

Ginjo silently boiled down in anger as the group of them gathered up and left without looking back. Well Chad looked back, but Ginjo couldn't quite decipher what he was seeing in the kid's single visible eye. Nevertheless, he felt like he was the one in the wrong here – and he couldn't be. He knew that just as well as he knew it was now winter.

"I guess that didn't go down as well as you've hoped it'd go," Yukio said emotionlessly. His eyes hadn't once left his game since the argument started.

"Maybe you should have had Tsukishima-san use his Fullbring on us before going to meet Kurosaki," Giriko supplied.

Riruka rolled her eyes. "Well, it's your fault. You've been rubbing him the wrong way from the very beginning. Exactly what were you expecting? A happy agreement? Hell, even _I_ can see that one's impossible."

The worst part was, she was right. Too late to think about that now. Contingency plans had to be put in motion. He had no intention on giving up just because some _brat_ thought he knew everything. Damn that Kurosaki and his cockiness.

His eyes found Tsukishima's unconscious form—seriously, what had that kid done to him?—and he started slapping him awake.

"Hey, Ginjo—!" Riruka yelled, but she was too late.

"Oi, Tsukishima!"

The other man was beginning to wake up. "Ginjo… huh?"

"Good. You've activated your Fullbring on that Kurosaki girl?"

"…yes. Inoue Orihime has also been tagged… what happened?"

"No clue. Say, are you in the mood for some brainstorming, eh?"

"Brain—? Ginjo, what's going on? What have you done?"

"Nothing," Riruka supplied dryly. "He just marvelously screwed up."

"Shut up! We need some goddamn contingency plans since we can't count on Kurosaki the older—and right now I see no better solution than the bastard's little sister. I'll be getting back at both the Shinigami and him. Heh. Two birds with one stone. So, what're ya saying? Any ideas?"

Tsukishima looked at Ginjo uncertainly. "…what exactly have you done now, Ginjo?"

* * *

And finally, done! Darn, this chapter took a lot out of me! Hopefully the next one isn't going to take nearly as long, but it's hard to say since the school year's ending this week and there are still some stuff that need to be learned. Meh. Anyways, leave a review on your way out!


	18. Chapter 17: Ensemble

I can now freely claim that, based on the latest chapters of both Bleach and RiF, this can be considered an AU. Some things are outright interesting, but… you know, incorporating the Thousand-year Blood War into this fic was never my plan in the first place.

To arandomreviewer: Yes, your review from before was precisely what inspired me to go down this route. As for Karin And Yuzu meeting the requirements to become Fullbringers, what can I say? Based on what is said in the manga, (nonexistent) children of 99% of the female cast in Bleach can become Fullbringers. But enough about that. My theory is that Karin and Yuzu can be Fullbringers because Masaki was a Quincy. Everything But the Rain arc gave us an answer as to how Ichigo had the predispositions. I'm also of belief that it accounts only for the child that was first born after the mother's contact with a Hollow. However, since Masaki was, in fact, a Quincy, it's not unlikely that she's come in contact with perhaps another Hollow in the period after Ichigo's birth and before Karin and Yuzu's.

* * *

Chapter 17: Ensemble

Kurosaki Karin blinked down at the 'Xcution' card she'd just been given, turning it to get a better look at what was written on the other side. Rather confusedly, she looked up at the person who'd given it to her.

"Shuu-chan? What is this?"

A mysterious, but warm smile was the only answer she got before her visitor put a finger over her mouth.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow, as if giving out a challenge.

Her favorite cousin smiled.

"It's a surprise. I'm not sure if you are going to like it, but it's worth giving it a shot. Just don't tell anyone about it, yet, okay?"

"Umm…"

"Karin-chan?"

"Ughh… fine. But I hate hiding things, especially from Yuzu and Ichi-nii."

"Isn't your brother leaving in ten days?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"I don't see any problems, then. Besides, you'll decide whether to tell him or not after you see what it is all about, okay?"

"…okay, I guess. Thanks for the gift."

"It's nothing. Happy New Year, Karin-chan."

* * *

Neville's head was spinning. It was the New Year day. An hour ago he'd sent a card to his grandma, heard about the party that Ichigo's friend Mizuiro was throwing with Inoue's help and Ichigo finally relented and told him exactly what he'd been involved with for almost two years now.

Shinigami.

Hollows.

Ichigo's lost powers and the very reason they were lost in the first place, and even the lengths he was going to in order to get them back.

Needless to say, Neville was a bit freaked out.

"How old were you when all this stuff happened?" he asked in disbelief when Ichigo finished the story.

"Fifteen when I first took Rukia's powers," Ichigo told him while rubbing the back of his neck. "Sixteen when I lost them."

Oh, well, that was not that scar—wait a second. Something was seriously wrong with the math here.

"Fifteen?" Neville asked.

"Uhh… yeah."

"I'm fifteen."

"… your point being?"

"You're a fifth year in Hogwarts! You're supposed to be fifteen! Wait—just how old _are_ you?"

"…Seventeen."

Neville just stared at complete and utter poker face on Ichigo's face. Was he crazy?

"You're seventeen, yet you've enrolled in fifth year?" he asked in disbelief.

"The hell? Why's everybody making an issue of my age? Hinamori's at least a hundred and nobody's asking her for excuses!"

"But Momo is a _girl. _You don't just talk to girls about their age," Neville wailed. Didn't Ichigo know _anything_ about girls?

"And I'm the human here!" Ichigo snapped.

Apparently not. Neville promptly shut up at that. For a minute anyway. "Point, I guess. But she's still a girl and therefore it is not a subject you should want to bring up. Merlin, good thing I've remembered to do some homework before coming here. I never would've been able to do it here."

"You've got to stop thinking of school as if it's your whole life," Ichigo mumbled.

"What? And ignore it completely like you do?"

"Wha-? No! I don't ignore it for the heck of it. I just—I just thought there was no point in doing homework since it wasn't as if I was going to go back!"

"But you are going back, aren't you?" Neville asked. "I mean, what is the point in quitting in the middle of the year? Sure, it's not like you went to Hogwarts for the sake of learning stuff, but still."

Ichigo didn't look him in the eyes when he replied, "I'm not sure… maybe… probably. I've no idea. Guess I'll have to talk to Urahara-san before deciding anything."

Neville nodded. "But that's probably yes, isn't it? You are coming back?"

"I haven't gotten my powers back yet," Ichigo said with an uneasy shrug.

Neville sighed. Maybe it was better not to touch on that subject anymore. "So… um… do you have any idea why I haven't gotten any warnings for the use of magic on humans that are technically classified as muggles?"

"How the hell should I know? I didn't even know using magic was forbidden if you're not at school. How lame. What's the point in learning it if you're not allowed to use it?"

"Umm… you are allowed to use it if you're an adult," Neville pointed out. "And since you're seventeen, it means you're legally an adult. Not that you would use it even if you _could. _And I don't suppose you've got an idea how the system works here."

Ichigo shrugged. "Can't say I do."

Neville just shook his head. "I thought so. Maybe they just didn't register me because of that R-something that you've mentioned. Is it all right if I stay hopeful?"

"Geez, relax," Ichigo told him. "You haven't gotten the warning yet, then it's probably okay. Besides, you've travelled across half the world in a way no wizard would really remember to check. Isn't that enough of a clue? It's not like you're registered here… if the registration system even exists. Darn, I'll need to go around and ask about it. Yuzu's shown some aptitude with magic and it probably isn't a good thing if I just ignore it."

"Really?" Neville deadpanned. "Well, that's nice. Your whole family is a bunch of wizards and you haven't even known about it. Awesome!"

Ichigo merely groaned.

"Say, Ichigo, I've never really wondered about it before, but that poster downstairs? Is that your mum?"

Nearly inaudible hum of agreement – Neville barely caught it. "Huh… but she's not… she's not here."

"…no."

"I… I'm not really sure if it's my place to know about this, but… what happened?" Neville asked quietly. But Ichigo didn't respond immediately so he quickly added, "You don't have to tell me, of course. Really, it's none of my business and I know I wouldn't be telling anything if it was serious—"

"She died," Ichigo cut him off. "When I was nine…"

Confused, yet somewhat sympathetic, Neville watched his best friend stare absently through the window.

"I'm… sorry to hear that. She is—she was really pretty. She must've been really nice."

Ichigo didn't really say anything so Neville felt as if he was ought to keep the silence away. Before he knew it, the point, the action or even the reason for the sudden urge to do so, Neville told him, "My parents… they… they used to be Aurors. Sort of like policemen in the muggle world… catching the dark wizards… They used to be really good at it, too."

He lowered his head, suddenly unable to bear with Ichigo's understanding look.

"They're not dead…" he whispered as he realized what Ichigo must have thought. "They're just—they're just misplaced. Or their minds are. I don't know…"

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked, quietly, as if raising his voice would be considered an offence.

And before Neville was certain of whether it was the good thing to do it or not, he ended up spilling out his whole family history – something he had never done before. Ichigo understood, to say in the least. The only question he'd asked was whether those at fault were punished and everything else had been said by Neville alone.

But somehow, it felt like a good thing. Because after that whole afternoon of just talking – more like Neville talking and Ichigo occasionally throwing in a word – the gaping hole that Neville knew existed, the one which made it difficult to connect and just _talk_, be a friend to Ichigo – it felt as if it had been reduced to a barely existing crack. One that could be dealt with eventually.

* * *

Momo rubbed the ache away from her left forearm as she entered the fifth division compound. She was barely two steps in when she shuddered for an unclear reason. It took her a few moments to realize that she'd detected a powerful Reiatsu in the area, one that she did not immediately recognize.

"Oh, Hinamori-fukutaichō, you're back! Are you all right? You look a bit pale."

"I'm all right," she informed the division's sixth seat who came running by. "Kurotsuchi-taichō was just asking so many technical questions I didn't at all understand. I'm a bit tired, that's all. Say, has the new captain arrived yet? I've been at the twelfth division for the past few days, but from what I've heard, he's here, isn't he?"

"Yeah. The Captain said he was going to delay the introductions until you're back. Said it wouldn't be fair to do it without his second in command present."

Momo smiled a bit, but it was more of a sad smile than anything else. "So, how does he appear to be, the new captain? Is he all right?"

The sixth seat grimaced. "To be honest, I've no idea what to tell you, fukutaichō. He's… different, I guess. Has a unique way of leading the division… Some of the older members say he's barely changed at all, appears he used to lead this division before Aizen, but I don't really know. I'm not the best person to ask. I've only seen him once in passing."

Momo nodded. "All right. I'll go speak to him immediately about the formal introduction."

"You sure you aren't going to get any rest first? You look exhausted, fukutaichō."

"I'm fine," Momo told him with a smile. She had to reassure the poor officer. From what she remembered, he only joined her division about a month before Aizen's defection and he was really talented and caring. Maybe a rise in rank ought to follow, if that fifth-seat girl doesn't recover soon enough. "The sooner we get this finished, the sooner I can get some rest. Thanks for your concern, Sora-kun."

"It's nothing, really, fukutaichō!"

Momo walked to the captain's chambers steadily, feeling only a little bit drained as she reached the door of the captain quarters. Her fingers rested on the wood as old memories surged through her. She hadn't been there since Aizen had first faked his death. Looking back, it felt as if that had happened so long ago.

She… wasn't sure if she wanted to go in. She feared that if the new captain was just like Aizen, then it would be impossible for her to take on her duties and not screw up, albeit unintentionally.

Her hand dropped at her side and Momo lowered her head. _No, silly. It isn't the time to be thinking about things like that. Ai-Aizen is gone… he's not coming back. Maybe that's for the better and… and maybe Hirako-taichō is interesting and nice and maybe I can make friends with him and not be reminded of the past… please make it so, Kami, please._

Taking a deep, shaky breath, she bowed down before the door.

"Hinamori-fukutaichō asking for permission to speak to Hirako-taichō!" she shouted, barely keeping her voice formal and stoic.

A heartbeat, two—

"Get inside, then, already. What're ya waitin' for?"

Momo nodded, more to herself than anybody else, and pulled the door open.

The first thing she thought was: Is this really the Captain's quarter?

The second: _That_ is Hirako-taichō?

However, the second thought took over the precedence instead of the first and she found herself just staring at her new superior.

The blonde regarded her with merely a glance as she stood frozen at the door. "What? The kitty ate yer tongue or somethin'? Or am I just that scary?"

"I… uh… um… no…" Momo choked out.

While in Fake Karakura she hadn't gotten to see all the Vizards, from what she had seen, she would be capable of recognizing a few faces and some of the names she had picked up from the other officers of Gotei. Except, she'd clearly given wrong names to the faces she remembered. It seemed as if, as far as her logic went, the person before her – Hirako Shinji – was supposed to have very long hair and it was also supposed to be of different shade and style. This person standing before her she hadn't even bestowed with a name.

Apparently, turns out she was wrong.

"You could stop starin', then. It's creepy," he told her.

Momo nodded, but as she tried to – pointlessly – imagine Hirako Shinji with long hair, it got a bit difficult.

It also triggered up something that had been bothering her for a while, but she'd pushed it back, preferring to focus on other matters. She knew Hirako Shinji. She wasn't sure from where or anything else, but with his bangs straight and hair much longer, she was pretty sure that if nothing else, he looked really familiar.

"I… I just came to see about that formal introduction," she managed to mumble out as she tried to remember.

But then it clicked.

"_Get away from her, kid!"_

Oh god, so _that's_ why he'd looked familiar before.

She blinked, shaking her head to clear it. It wouldn't do any good to her if she let the memories overwhelm her now. Coming to think of it, the memories of what would be her death as a human was not nearly as traumatizing as the fact that this person used to be Aizen's Captain.

"Oi, are you even listenin' to me?"

"Uh… excuse me!" she squeaked. Now she knew for sure that something in her head wasn't functioning right. "Umm… what were you saying, Hirako-taichō?"

"I said, we could do that thing right away and get it off our necks. Any objections?"

"Err… no sir."

"Ya sure yer alright, kid? You look like yer out of it. Wanna leave it for tomorrow and get some rest instead?"

"_Mmm… I think he's all right," _Tobiume piped up.

Instead of replying to her Zanpakuto, Momo blurted out the first thing that came to her. "No, no. That's all right, Taichō. I just… I just realized it was you who first brought me to Soul Society. Nothing to worry about!"

A heartbeat, two—

Momo blinked, pretty much startled because that had not in the least been what she'd been intending to say. Her new Captain regarded her thoughtfully, something she was pretty sure meant that he couldn't remember her. Well, it's not like she was going to pester him about it or anything. Hell, even better for her if he couldn't.

"I was, was I?" Hirako asked, rather disinterestedly after another second fluttered by. "Well, ain't of any importance now. Are we gonna get that load of bull off our shoulders or what? Seriously, after spendin' so long in the livin' world, some of the traditions here feel utterly _stupid_."

Momo watched him contemplatively for solid five seconds, earning an annoyed look from the Vizard.

"_Oh, god, Momo, please! You can't decide not to like him because he's not like Aizen! Come on!" _Tobiume whined.

"Umm… it would still be good if the rest of the division knew who their captain is," she told Hirako quietly. "They could just walk past you completely clueless and being clueless is never a good thing," she pointed out, surprised at how calmly she was handling this.

Hirako regarded her with a short look, a distant emotion flickering behind it before he merely groaned and gestured her to follow him.

"_MOMO!"_

Aforementioned Shinigami sighed. All evidence as of late was just pointing out that some higher forces held no even an inkling of affection for her.

* * *

"Oi, Karin! Yuzu! Your dear old pops is going out! Don't miss me too much!"

"Who would ever miss you, Goat Face?"

"Eh? But Otou-san, where? Onii-chan and Neville-kun left just a few minutes ago! You aren't going to follow them, are you?"

"YUZU! H-how could you ever think that about me! Masaki, my daughter—"

Otou-san's wail was cut off by Karin rather cruelly punching his nose right before he had a chance to hug their mum's portrait. Yuzu winced in sympathy, but she had long since given up trying to interfere.

"Karin-chan!"

Well, really interfere, at any rate.

"Don't sweat it, Yuzu," Karin told her sister as she casually watched Otou-san rub his nose. "Didn't you say you were leaving?" she added to him.

"Ah, yeah, Uraha—" he then caught a sight of his wrist-watch. "Oh my god, I'm running late! I'll see you latter, my sweetest daughters! Daddy's got to run! Remember to lock the door!"

Yuzu tilted her head as he stormed out of the house, nearly forgetting to shut the door. Karin ended up doing it instead and she didn't look in the least bit happy about it.

"Seriously, that old man. It's not like…" she paused, looking at Yuzu as though this was the first time she'd seen her. "Hey, Yuzu, did old man say where he was going?"

"Umm… he was about to. But then he saw his watch," Yuzu replied. "Uh… is something the matter, Karin-chan? You look like you have something in mind."

Karin smirked. "Of course I do. I was pretty sure I overheard _something_ yesterday evening. No wonder he's in such hurry. Goat Chin is becoming really careless. Say, Yuzu, would you still like to go to Hogwarts with Ichi-nii?"

For the first instance, Yuzu was quiet. Her self-confidence had never been at its highest point and ever since Ichi-nii had gotten involved with the spiritual business, Yuzu was the _only_ one in the family that could not even see ghosts (_well, there's Otou-san too, but he doesn't count_). Learning she could – or at least potentially could – use magic finally made her feel a true part of the family. Karin, naturally, was the first person to learn about it. As there were no outer changes, mostly nobody would notice it, but the look in Yuzu's eyes was slightly different from her usual look.

"It's a no brainer, Karin-chan," she replied calmly. "What is your plan?"

Karin's smirk widened.

"We're going spying! If I'm right – and I know I am– Goat Chin is meeting Urahara-san. You remember him, right? That weird guy with the bucket hat and weird clogs? Well, I just know they're up to something. It looks like dad knows him, and while I really have no idea how, and they're up to something. I know they wouldn't be nearly as sneaky if they weren't. All we've got to do is guilt trip or blackmail dad into agreeing and I doubt Urahara-san would have anything against. It's his fault for everything that happened to Ichi-nii. He's just crazy like that. I keep wondering why Ichi-nii hadn't kicked his ass yet."

"So… you're suggesting we should just blackmail Otou-san and Urahara-san into letting us go to Hogwarts with Onii-chan? But… Onii-chan mentioned he probably won't be going back."

Karin waved a hand dismissively. "Of course he will. Where's the logic in quitting school in the middle of the year?"

"Well, I guess you have a point. So… spying and blackmailing?"

"Yep," Karin said with a malicious glint in her eye. "I'd probably have to postpone that call Shuu-chan asked me to make, but this is so much better! Let's go, Yuzu!"

Yuzu refrained from asking Karin about Shuu-chan—Karin never used that particular honorific before—instead focusing on their self-proclaimed mission. If there was a chance for her not to be the odd-one-out in her family (really, Otou-san didn't count), she'd gladly take it.

"Wait for me, Karin-chan!"

* * *

"Three ways?"

"Yeah."

"Three ways, hmmmm?"

"Yes."

"_Three_ ways?"

Ariana took a deep, deep breath, which helped her relax. Somewhat, anyway. Aside from the fact that she was not a proficient Japanese speaker (more like, she understood none of it), it turned out that a very small number of people in Seireitei had knowledge of English language. The small number included the girl she'd nearly cut in half, the girl whose memories she'd butchered, several other Shinigami that were apparently at Hogwarts and apparently the clown guy which she'd rather not associate with, if only because he looked like a freak. Oh and there was a lady with a notebook, but meh, she looked like she was only there to listen and write.

Seeing as the clown face had asked her the same question three times already, she decided to cut to the chase and ignore him this time around. Eventually, he spoke on his own.

"Only?"

Ariana barely resisted the urge to groan. The lady sitting with them (introduced herself as Ise Nanao – Ariana still had no idea which was the first and which was the last name) cleared her throat.

"Yes, only," Ariana said, growing irritated. "I'm pretty sure there are only two ways for somebody to enter Seireitei, so we're one way ahead of you."

"Really?" the mighty clown (Ariana could not, for the life of her, remember what his name was) asked. "I have personally run several experiments and proved that there are in total seven ways to enter _any_ Soul Society.

"Well, good for you," she said testily. "Anyway, there is only three ways for a Shinigami to enter Avalon. Or better make that two and a half. The way Hollows would enter is not something we would be able to recreate anytime soon."

Ise Nanao cleared her throat again. Ariana shot her a look. The girl only slightly tilted her head.

"Two and a half?"

Ariana sighed. "The first way is to go through the Gates, which we can rule out immediately as I've been permanently keyed out of creating those months ago. Sort of why I had to break out. The second one is the gate between Societies, but that requires agreement from both sides. Then there's also the Soul Burial, but we can dismiss that one immediately as you can't perform Soul Burial on a Shinigami," she said, her voice edging in frustration.

At Nanao's prompting look, she continued.

"And the last, which I would consider the half way, is something I've been researching for the past months before going to Hogwarts. There were rumors going around, seeing how many residents of Avalon used to be wizards, about a certain experiment the magical community was conducting as a way of connecting with the afterlife. Of course, those rumors came from my very own unit, seeing as most of us were members of the research center. Those months I've spent in Avalon after Blake's takeover was the time I used to confirm those theories. When I wasn't trying to keep my head on my shoulders, anyway."

"Which means that you've spent months looking for a way to lead an army in Avalon?" Nanao asked.

Ariana cringed. "Well, not exactly," she admitted. "More of it consisted in trying to break into the research center, seeing as both the resistance and Blake's goons considered me to be a traitor. The resistance because I've never directly returned there after failing to secure help, and Blake because he knows I'd never join him. Anyway, it took some time, but I've managed to confirm the rumors – which isn't an entirely good thing."

"And how so?" the crazy clown asked. Ariana did her best not to look at him.

"How I've confirmed it or how is that not a good thing?" she bit back.

"The latter," Ise said before the crazy clown got his chance.

She sighed. "It's located in the Ministry of Magic in London and then there's also the problem of activating it. Apparently, the wizards don't know how to do it and I think I could find a way, given the opportunity and time. Third, it would require breaking into one of the safest facilities in the world. It comes off as especially difficult seeing how bad effect magic has on the Spiritual Energy. Oh, and that's only theoretically. For all I know, if put into practice, it could effectively obliterate a soul going through it. Or just explode."

Ise made a note on her clipboard, for the umpteenth time ever since the conversation started. Ariana had to admit, it was beginning to get on her nerves.

"Hmm… are you perhaps a scientist?" the crazy clown asked, forcing her attention back on him.

"You could put it that way," she informed him with a grimace._ I'm the one who keeps blowing up the research center. _"I'm third in command of the experimental ward. Well, I used to be. I'm pretty sure I've been stripped of that rank."

"Hmm… that does not seem to take away from your abilities?" he noted, looking at her as though he was examining her. It was downright creepy. Why was she asking these guys for help, again?

"Uh… why would it?" she asked, feeling uncomfortable under his analytic gaze. "I mean, I'm good when it comes to wielding weapon and even better with spells. Everything else is pretty average."

"Yet you've knocked out two of our elite soldiers, nearly killing one, without breaking a sweat," he pointed out.

"Umm… make that two," she said. To a raised eyebrow, she clarified, "I've nearly killed both of them. I haven't seen any other way to knock out the Captain so I've done the same thing I've done to the Lieutenant—" (well, not completely the same) "—changed those memories, effectively healed her and later on made sure the basis for my plan was set. Sure, it all went south soon enough, but—" she realized exactly what she'd been saying as she felt two stabbing looks on her and Ise looked ready to attack her any second. Uh-oh. It was definitely not her first time to say more than she should.

"So, you've come close to killing Captain Soifon and Lieutenant Kuchiki and now you are expecting the aid of their associates?" Nanao asked her incredulously. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Don't make it sound like I wanted to kill them!" Ariana countered childishly. "Really, had I not felt the other Shinigami approaching I would've healed that Kuchiki girl too. And I made sure that Soifon was completely healed before doing anything! I've done some serious damage, I know, but I went ahead and fixed it!"

"You know, that doesn't really give us any incentive to trust you," Kurotsuchi (_now_ she remembered) told her wryly. From the look on his face, Ariana was pretty sure he actually didn't care about what she'd done. From the mad gleam in his eyes, she was absolutely sure he just wanted to know how she'd done it. Well, no way in hell she was going to tell them that. They didn't trust her already and saying anything more would only make it worse.

"Isn't it enough to just swear that it was all for a good cause and reason that both of the victims have recovered well?" she asked, her voice almost pleading. "Isn't there any oath I can swear to make sure I don't do something stupid like that again? I told you, I'm a part of experimental ward. Thinking out of the box is my specialty, but it isn't foolproof."

Well, no matter what she did now, every damage control seemed to be making the situation worse. Two indignant looks were more than enough to attest to that. Sighing, Ariana ran a hand through her hair.

"Alright, I've got a plan. I know you don't trust me, but my brother, who happens to be Albus Dumbledore, is the Headmaster of Hogwarts and a very important figure in the Wizarding world. Assuming you agree to help me stop the madman, I can make sure you gain cover either by hiring your officers in Ministry of Magic undercover or by placing them in Hogwarts from where it would be even easier to act while I attempt to open a pathway to Avalon. Plausible enough?"

The look on the girl's face only got more indignant – if that was even possible. The mad clown grinned.

"I like you."

Oh, _great_. Just bloody perfect.

"Say, if you ever conclude that you may need a change in surroundings and work, I assure you that Research and Development Bureau of Seireitei will always be prepared to welcome you with open arms."

_More like welcome me to an asylum, _Ariana thought. Nevertheless, her response was calm. "…I'll make sure to keep it mind."

From a mildly compassionate look she'd gotten from Nanao, Ariana realized it would be better to just stay away from Seireitei's Research Bureau. For her physical and mental health, if nothing else.

As for her thought up scheme… it was probably crazy enough that Ise would consider it suicidal.

* * *

"Well, here we go," Hermione said as she laid a thick, old-looking book on Harry's bed as she sat across him and Ron. "I've been doing some research on Japanese terms and words that I have heard both Momo and Ichigo have talked about, and I think I've got something."

"Huh? You've actually found a way to spell out all that?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Well, I've got to admit it hadn't been easy. And most of the words have at least two different translations, depending on the characters used to write them. For the word 'Reiatsu' I've found that the translation is 'heartfelt thanks', but it doesn't make sense in the context so I've kept digging but I couldn't find anything else. But then I found a similar term – 'Reiryoku'."

"Hmm… I think I may have heard it," Harry said thoughtfully. "I mean, it certainly sounds like I have, but I can't say for sure. It's difficult to say what they're talking and I still can't remember that night…"

"That makes one of us," Ron mumbled quietly. Harry briefly pondered whether punching him in the shoulder was going to make him feel any better, but he ultimately decided against it. Just because he was the only one that couldn't remember the events of that night clearly didn't mean that Ron had to go ahead and rub it in all the time.

"Anyway, the translation for that is 'spiritual power'," Hermione said. "The second term was Bakudō and I've had so much trouble with it. Depending on characters it can be translated to all sorts of soils, exposure and so many other things. I think it finally comes down as 'such exposure', or possibly 'way of binding' but neither makes sense in the context. The last part Ron has mentioned was Kyoko, isn't that right, Ron?"

"Umm… I think," Ron mumbled.

"Well, it probably wasn't, as that is actually a girl name, but there's Kyokkō. You spell it K-Y-O-K-K-O-U. It translates as either imaginary kid, rays of a rising sun or bent light. Seeing as what you've said Momo's spell had done, it must have been the last one – bent light. It would mean that she literally had to call out on the effect she wanted. So put together, it would be either 'way of binding bent light' or 'such exposure bent light' unless, of course, some characters are different and the entire meaning of separate parts is lost in order to compensate for something entirely different. I'm afraid that is as much as I could find with the little information I've had."

"And what about the middle part of the incantation? Could it have been something that changes it completely?" asked Ron.

"Middle? You mean, what you've informed me of is just the beginning and the end?" Hermione countered incredulously.

"Don't lash out on me like that. That what she'd said was bloody long, Hermione! Be happy I've at least figured some of it! I wouldn't be able to repeat the rest even if I remembered!"

Harry groaned. "Which means we're nearly at the same place from which we've started. We only know she'd used wandless magic, which is a difficult, nearly impossible feat especially because it made all of us invisible and she shouldn't be able to perform it and we also know that it's got something to do with some spiritual power. Then we've also got that term 'Kido'. Have you had any luck with that, Hermione?"

She frowned.

"Well, it can translate to brightness, start-up, maneuver, demon hall, return road, demon way, deceptive measures and all sorts of other things," she said sadly.

"And we've also got a lead that it is some form of self-defense art," Harry added.

"Well, I guess it can then be maneuver," she sighed. "I haven't found anything that may suggest anything else but 'Aikido', but somehow I think we can rule out that possibility."

"Yeah, that's more Ichigo's forte," Harry mumbled.

"I don't know about that," Hermione said. "Aikido is basically a defensive martial art and we know Ichigo doesn't mind engaging in fist-fights, but he's always the one attacking. I don't know, but I don't think that someone who practices self-defense art is inclined into using it to attack others."

"Well Ichigo doesn't really attack people without a reason," Ron sighed, then yawned. "Don't you think we should head to bed? It's been a tiring day and solving some pieces of puzzles that are Ichigo and Momo shouldn't be left for this late hour."

"Please, Ronald, wasn't it you who kept pestering _me_ with questions?" Hermione bit back.

"I was just curious!"

"Well so was I, but I don't see you doing anything to find the answers!"

"You're the one who's good with that stuff, not me!" Ron defended. "And I think we should actually spend our time trying to figure out how You-Know-Who is getting into Harry's head! That's got to be dark magic and this is the house of Black! We're bound to find something."

"Then go ahead and look for it by yourself!" Hermione snapped at him, before grabbing her thick book and heading out the door. But as she opened them, she turned back and looked at Harry. "I haven't meant that I don't care."

Harry uncertainly nodded back. "I know." Barely a second later, she slammed the door shut.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with her?" Ron asked immediately. "Has she gone batty or what? Why is she constantly looking for a reason to fight with me?"

Harry resisted the urge to say that he seemed just as eager to fight with her. Antagonizing Ron any further would drive him mad and he already had enough issues to deal with. As for Hermione's animosity… well, he had no idea. But it probably had something to do with her not liking how anytime someone mentions a girl, Ron goes on talking about Momo. Even he wasn't so vocal about Cho and and Hermione certainly wasn't lashing out at him all the time.

"Try to be a bit more tactful, I guess," Harry told his best friend with a sigh.

"Tactful? What have I done to get her after my blood?"

Harry shrugged. "If it's of any comfort, maybe you should try helping her look for some other information in the library? I think she'd appreciate the sentiment."

"Yeah, and chew my head right off if I spoke a single world," Ron mumbled. "Anyway, good night, Harry."

Harry grumbled in response. He wished the holidays lasted longer. Just thinking about his return to Hogwarts in about a week was making him cringe. Though, at least there was still the DA.

* * *

Rukia frowned as she heard her soul phone beep as she skipped over from one roof to another, heading towards the Kurosaki Clinic. Her frown only deepened as she read the message she'd just received.

'_Kuchiki-fukutaichō, head over to Urahara Kisuke's shop immediately for debriefing on your mission aspect and added information.' _

What was that all about? Due to many information being revealed both by Kurotsuchi-taichō and Ray Ariana, her mission in the living world was put on hold and she'd headed out to Karakura a week later than what she was supposed to and now they wanted her in for even more information?

_Well, this better be something good,_ she thought as she abruptly changed direction.

She was met with an installed screen five minutes later (the same one that Hitsugaya-taichō had installed in Orihime's house so long ago) and a very unhappy aforementioned Captain greeting her. She cocked her head, briefly asking what the matter was about. No matter which way one took it, Hitsugaya Toshiro did not look in the least bit happy about whatever information he was about to give her. He just looked even more annoyed than usual.

Behind him, she spotted Renji, Hinamori and Kurotsuchi Nemu, sporting a bored, nervous and emotionless look respectively.

_Hmm… I wonder what this is about. _

The wide grin on Urahara's face was not in the slightest bit relaxing.

* * *

"Have you gotten it too, Ishida-kun?" Orihime asked excitedly as she cornered the poor Quincy, followed by Tatsuki who had a rather disdainful look on his face.

Ishida – who had been trying to find anything to relate him to those who attacked him – was naturally confused.

"Have I gotten what, Inoue-san?" he asked, trying to at least somewhat keep away from the excited teenager. Honestly, it would be scary if her energy suddenly started to manifest in everybody else and meeting Mahana from his class earlier that day – who'd previously been in contact with Orihime – was rather scarring. Especially so when she started asking about his father and Kurosaki, for no apparent reason. Whatever food Orihime had given her earlier had had a similar effect as too much sugar would.

"The letter! The letter!" she shouted. "Urahara-san gave me one and Sado-kun and Tatsuki-chan have also gotten theirs, so there's no reason you wouldn't get one! Even Kurosaki-kun got it!"

Ishida couldn't be sure, but what she was talking about probably had something to do with the envelope he'd found in his room with a note glued on it, claiming that if he had no intention to hang around with Kurosaki, he probably shouldn't open it.

Ishida would proudly like to say that he'd thrown the thing in the garbage bin or that he'd burnt it, but at the moment it was still bent twice and pushed in his inner pocket while he was trying to decide whether he should get rid of it or not. Naturally, now that Inoue was pestering him about it, he was pretty sure that unless he'd give her a positive answer, she'd get him to open it right away.

"Yes, I have," he said with as much dignity as he could muster. "It is surprising that you have gotten it as well, Arisawa."

Tatsuki merely shrugged. "Someone's got the idea into their head that I want to beat Ichigo senseless until he starts actually using his brain."

"And you don't?" he asked, barely keeping sarcasm in his voice from becoming obvious.

"Whatever got you thinking that I want to be his babysitter?"

"Well that makes two of us," he mumbled.

Orihime grinned. "But you're coming, no? Kurosaki-kun is getting ready for returning to Hogwarts so it really shouldn't be a problem to not tell him right away, don't you think?"

Neither gave her a straight answer. Instead, Tatsuki murmured something about how much snow there was and Ishida said, "I don't suppose Kurosaki's got any idea of what could have happened to those who have happened to attack me."

Inoue assumed a thoughtful position while Tatsuki snorted.

"Umm… well, we thought it was some guy named Tsukishima," Orihime said. "You know, seeing as he attacked me and Neville-kun, but the Reiatsu signature didn't match. Whoever had done it is still hiding somewhere and we're going to have to look for them sooner or later, but right now this is more important, understand?"

Tatsuki and Uryu shared a look that clearly said 'not at all', but that wasn't nearly enough to deter the excited princess.

"Who's coming with me to find Sado-kun? He said he'd be around here!"

She ran off in the next second.

"Oh god, I'm going after her," Tatsuki told Ishida. "She's been jumping around like that all day, I'm afraid she'll end up crashing into a wall or something. See you."

Ishida sighed as both girls went on their merry way.

Well, now there was all the more reason to throw the damned letter away. He had no slightest clue why in the end he'd ended up opening it and reading it, but he liked to (at least in his head) blame Inoue Orihime for that. She sure knew how to present something. He had no idea where the actual thought came from, but he was absolutely certain that she would make a great merchant.

* * *

"What? Kurosaki-san, what—? You want to _quit_?"

"What? NO! I never said that! I just said I've been thinking about not going back to Hogwarts and I wanted to hear your opinion, dammit!"

"Doesn't that sound awfully much like quitting?"

The look of mock-horror on Urahara's face was no less infuriating now than it was just a second ago.

"_No._"

"Oh, well, fine, then. Just so you know, it's not nice to try and fool me like that."

"Fool you? I wasn't trying to—it's not like you've been fooled in the first place!"

"But I _was_! Well, never mind that now! The point is, you are going back, are you not?"

Ichigo snorted. "Do I even have a choice?"

"Of course not," Urahara grinned.

"Thought as much. Well, that clears things up," he said as he stood up from where he'd been sitting at Urahara's shop. "I'm leaving now. Gotta pack and all that."

"This has been a very short visit," Urahara mumbled. "Are you sure you don't want me to provide you with transportation to Hogwarts?"

"No thanks. I still trust the airplanes better."

"Now that's just not fair."

"Oh, yeah, there was one thing I've been meaning to ask, though."

Urahara just sighed. "Ask away."

Ichigo scratched the back of his head. "You know some guy named Ginjo? He appears to know both you and my dad and he's all about some creepy theory that there's a conspiracy behind my combat pass. I wasn't really in the mood for the stuff so I shunned it, but it worries me that he's done nothing yet. Didn't seem like a type to give up easily."

He was a bit unnerved by Urahara's neutral look. Unbeknownst to him, however, Urahara was trying his hardest not to let any flicker of surprise show on his face.

"Hmm… Are you perhaps talking about Ginjo Kugo? The first Substitute Shinigami?"

Ichigo blinked several times. "The first sub-? Hey, you know what? Never mind. It's not like I wanted to get involved with this shit anyway. I guess it's true then that he's also the substitute. And here I was thinking he was just full of bull crap."

Urahara once again had to keep the surprise from breaking out on his face. "Hmm… you don't seem worried in the least, Kurosaki-san. Aren't you worried that whatever he said could be true?"

Ichigo's eyebrows knit together, but he didn't look upset at the prospect. Neither did he feel that way. "Does it even matter?" he asked. "Truth or not, what does it change? Ginjo's still a bastard and Soul Society's still pretty much the same. I won't say something like I don't like it, even if I really don't. Maybe it's because I can partly understand the reasoning behind it – you can't just trust any person who comes by. Well, most people can't, anyway." He looked back towards the exit door. "I've really got to go now, Urahara-san. Can't leave Neville all on his own."

"All right then," Urahara sighed. "Oh, and by the way, do you know when Isshin-san and the girls are coming back?"

Ichigo merely groaned. "I didn't even know they left until I saw that message." He paused, turning back to Urahara with a pronounced scowl. "How do you know they're gone in the first place?"

Urahara just grinned, flapping his fan open. "Oh, it's nothing really," he said merrily. "It's just that Isshin-san had been here when he got the call. Those things don't just go by me!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Well, anyway, see ya."

Kisuke could have sworn he'd heard a silent 'thanks' as the shoji door slid shut behind Ichigo. Nevertheless, he chose to answer, "You're welcome."

* * *

Tom Marvolo Riddle, more commonly known as Lord Voldemort, was normally not a hot-tempered and impatient person. He loved when his plans simply fell in place and worked as they were supposed to, and for that he was willing to spend years, if only to make sure that he be the victor. Right now, that patience was on its very edge.

One may wonder why, but it was fairly simple. The waiting was driving him nuts.

Yes, it had been his own plan to try and manipulate Potter into getting the prophecy for him, as nothing else seemed to be working out. Making sure that the boy had recurring dreams about the hallway leading to the Department of Mysteries was a part of his scheme to test the limits of how much he could control what the boy saw. Except that, after what had happened with Nagini and Arthur Weasley, that had been becoming increasingly more difficult thing to do – enough to warrant Voldemort considering alternatives.

Really, there was nothing stopping him from marching into the Ministry of Magic right now, but he'd rather not reveal himself as alive just yet. There was so much more he'd be able to do in only several months, thus waiting for a perfect opportunity was not at all vexing.

What was, however, was the fact that there seemed to be something omitting his connection to Potter's mind. Like there was some sort of a memory cap used on him, yet not in its true sense. It was more like there was something actively attempting to seal away his memories and Voldemort's attempts at breaking into the boy's mind were just making it easier for the thing to work. At the same time the thing was just throwing him out. In essence, it was as if he was sabotaging himself.

A new plan needed to be thought up, no matter what Lucius thought. He was going to make sure that all of his Death Eaters were out of Azkaban by the end of the next day and then he would take a break in order to consider his options once again.

And maybe persuading the Dementors to join him immediately was not such a bad idea. It certainly had it's merit to have them on his side. Oh, how interesting it would be to gather them up and later release them in the very heart of the Ministry of Magic. So very satisfying. And of course, an invasion on Hogwarts – while Dumbledore is away, naturally. Splendid.

But better no. Those were all too risky options to consider. He needed to go down the more traveled route, at least for now. Originality and brutality may assist him later.

As for Harry Potter – he imagined strangling the boy to death. Ah, yes. There was something satisfying in the way his eyes bulged out and his face turned purple before the force of Voldemort's hold simply broke the boy's neck.

Ah, there was an image to enjoy. Come to think of it, the filthy brat should be killed by no magical means, if at all possible. It would be all that much more satisfying.

* * *

As the Hogwarts Express skidded to a halt in the Hogsmeade platform, Parvati Patil looked out the window with odd sort of detachedness. A feeling of dread crept within her and she had nothing to associate it with. As the compartment was filled with the whole lot of noise, she remained silent as she walked towards the coaches with her friends who were cheerfully talking about the newest gossip. For the first time since, well, forever, she didn't feel like joining in. Instead, she stared through the window where a thestral was supposedly dragging the coach when they got in, although she could not see it. Not that she wanted to, either. That might be even more traumatic then seeing Ichigo in his terrifying glory once again. Especially when she thought about the requirements that ability to see the thestrals demanded.

Oh, great, now she was in some sort of depression, thinking about death.

"Hey, have you heard about that new line of dresses that came out last week?" she asked to Romilda Vane, only to drive her thoughts away from depressing subjects. Seriously, what was wrong with her? She never felt this way when she was on her way to Hogwarts. Most of the time she just felt… fulfilled. And now that was clearly not the case.

She sighed.

Romilda shot her a look that indicated the girl wasn't at all happy about her story being interrupted, but Parvati didn't pay it much heed. Were it not for her hanging out with Fay all the time as of late, she would have ignored the girl completely.

_Home sweet home,_ she thought sullenly as the castle greeted her in its magnificent way.

* * *

Ginjo stared at the door that had been shut about a minute ago, not really seeing them. If one were to look at him, they wouldn't have much to see. Somewhat skeptical look on his face and knit eyebrows, but that was all there was to it. The truth was, he was a bit confused.

Or better, really confused. So much that he almost forgot how to breathe.

Just… what.

Did Kurosaki Karin just walk out on him with a smile, telling him she was grateful for his effort but she found other things to pursue? _What_.

"Maybe you should just drop it," Riruka said, being the first one to actually comment on anything since the door closed. Ginjo shot her a look, but he couldn't quite find his voice. Otherwise he would've already called her a dumb bitch.

"Your brilliant plan to destroy the Shinigami, I mean," she elaborated and from the look on her face he could tell that she was savoring every single moment of this talk. "Clearly the universe is against you. Unless you can find another person with only a scrap of potential that the Kurosaki siblings had, you're pretty much doomed."

Ginjo's fists clutched instinctively, breaking the glass he'd been holding into pieces. Fortunately they didn't cut in his skin. Nobody even blinked.

"Really, Ginjo. Your odds dropped from one percent to zero point zero zero one. And you should have made sure that Karin didn't think this was actually her New Year's gift. You weren't really expecting her to ask you if she could pay you back, were you?"

Ginjo shot another glare, this time at Yukio. He bit back a frustrated yes. A part of his mind noted that this was the first time Riruka and Yukio agreed on something. That in itself was a bit frightening. Seeing as he really wasn't going to get any support from either of them, his eyes found Jackie.

The tall woman noticed it and titled her head slightly. "I've liked that kid."

_Should've known. _

He then looked at Giriko.

"Well, it was a somewhat unwise plan to begin with, using a twelve year old girl to bring down the Shinigami."

_Fuck you, Kutsuzawa._

Tsukishima gave only a slightest twitch of his lips, but Ginjo could see how _amused_ he was about this.

"I second that," was all he said.

Ginjo wished he could explode and blew all of them to hell.

"Fuck you," he said. "Fuck you. ALL OF YOU!"

The 'Xcution' headquarters after that was never the same again.

* * *

Review!

P.S. Has anyone heard Simple Plan's 'This Song Saved My Life'? If yes, am I the only one thinking that, metaphorically, it describes what Rukia has been doing for Ichigo since like, the first chapter?


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